State govt mulls hike in paternity leave

Kolkata: The state government is planning to increase paternity-cum-child care leave for its employees from 30 days to 45 days.

At present, the male employees of the state government get a leave of 30 days. All male employees of the Panchayat and other local bodies, boards, sponsored and non-government aided schools and colleges, state-aided universities and companies, corporations and undertakings are entitled to get the paternity-cum-child care leave.

Now, the state government is planning to increase the number of days of the leave to 45 days, considering it will help the employees take care of their children in a better way.

It may be recalled that the Mamata Banerjee government had introduced the paternity-cum-child care leave in February 2016 and it was stated that the leave can be taken during the birth of his child or at any time at a stretch, up to 18 years of his child's age.

It was introduced, considering that it would be of great help for the male employees to discharge their responsibilities towards their children in a better way.

On Father's Day this year, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had tweeted: "My best wishes to everyone on #FathersDay. Welfare of fathers is also a priority of our Govt."

The Mamata Banerjee government had taken up several measures for the benefit of state government employees, in the past seven years. The Chief Minister has also declared a total additional dearness

allowance (DA) hike of 25 percent for the employees, that will come into effect from January 1 in 2019.

Also, employees who get retired, will not have to wait for years to get their pension now. With the introduction of e-pension, retired employees have started getting pension without any delay.