Government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous offices started with the 8am to 3pm office hours from today to save electricity.
Government employees could be seen entering the Secretariat before 8am on Wednesday to follow the newly announced office time by the government.
On Monday, the government announced the decision to run all government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous offices from 8am to 3pm instead of 9am to 5pm daily to save electricity.
Private offices will make decisions regarding their office hours as per their own plans.
Banks across the country will remain open from 9am to 4pm.
The government has also decided to keep all educational institutions in the country closed for two days a week – on Friday and Saturday.
However, the emergency services will remain out of the purview of these instructions.
The Cabinet has asked the power, energy and mineral resources ministry to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply in the rural areas from midnight to dawn for the next 10-15 days so that irrigation is not hampered.
It also directed the government offices to remove curtains in their offices to allow natural light inside the rooms and to use air conditioners as little as possible to cut electricity consumption.
On 17 July, the government decided to halt production at all diesel-run power plants – which provide around 2.79% of the country's electricity – across the country until further notice. Last week, two of those power plants resumed operation.
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