17 government printing presses to merge into 5, jobs protected: Jaitley

New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod to the rationalisation and modernisation of all 17 government printing presses across the country by merging them into five units without causing any job losses.

The decision about the "merger and modernisation" of the "underworked" printing presses was taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the move would enable the government to take some 468 acres of land into the central pool.

He said surplus employees at any printing press would be "redeployed" and all the jobs will be protected.

The government presses print annual Union Budget, session papers of Parliament, policy documents of the government, secret or confidential publications like examination papers, income tax forms, postal forms and annual reports of ministries and government departments.

The existing 17 printing presses are located in Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Odisha and Karnataka.

Of the five units post-rationalisation, three will be located at Delhi -- at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Minto Road and Mayapuri -- and one each in Maharashtra (Nashik) and West Bengal (Kolkata).

The move would be carried out at zero cost to the exchequer and without any retrenchment, an official statement said.

"These five presses will be redeveloped and modernised by monetisation of their surplus land. Land measuring 468.08 acres of the other merged presses will be given to Land and Development Office. Land measuring 56.67 acres of the Government of India Text Books Presses (GITBPs) at Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and Mysuru will be returned to the respective state governments," the statement said.