Five-day-a-week schedule to continue: AIRF

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government may have got officers to hit the ground running in its first two weeks, but it has no plans to shorten their weekends by switching to a sixday week from the present five days, according to an assurance given by cabinet secretary Ajit Seth to employee representatives of the Indian Railways. Shiva Gopal Mishra, general secretary of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation, met Seth on Friday to ascertain if news reports about changing the government’s working hours and days were correct. “After the discussion, the cabinet secretary assured Mishra that no such proposal is under consideration with the government at present,” a statement from the federation issued on Saturday evening said. The practice of working five days a week was introduced in 1985.