Mamata Banerjee announced on Friday that about 100 contractual employees in the information and technology wing of the public works department would be brought under the direct contract of the state government apparently to recognise their efforts in keeping the communication channel between districts and the state secretariat functional during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 100 IT professionals working with the IT wing of the PWD were engaged by either the WEBEL or the WTL, two state government firms.

The decision would help the professionals as they would now get 30 days of annual leave, in addition to 10 days of medical leave, which they were not entitled till now.

They can work till the age of 60 years uninterruptedly and would get a sum of Rs 3 lakh upon retirement.

The professionals would also be brought under the Swasthya Sathi, a health scheme of the state government.

The chief minister made the announcement in a tweet.

“Bengal is known for its e-governance & today I’m pleased to announce my Pujo gift for young IT personnel working to improve our e-services for the people of Bengal. The IT staff engaged by Webel and WTL shall now be directly engaged as contractual staff of GoWB,” Mamata tweeted.

Although the chief minister did not say whether their salary structure would be revised, sources at Nabanna said once the professionals were engaged directly by the government, their pay would be increased to some extent.

“The agencies charge a service charge, up to 5 per cent of the salary of an employee, from the government for supplying the manpower. Now, the government can pay the IT employees directly,” said a senior government official.

Sources said Mamata was very happy with the performance of the IT wing of the PWD after it worked hard to keep the communication channel open between districts and Nabanna during the pandemic.

“The chief minister and the top government officials held a series of meetings over video conferencing with the districts as well as Delhi during the pandemic. The IT wing of the PWD developed and maintained the entire system during the crisis. The professionals worked very hard and the chief minister rewarded them,” said an official.

A bureaucrat said the IT wing actually saved a sum of nearly Rs 5 crore of the government by developing and maintaining the entire system.

“If a private agency had to be engaged for this, it would have charged at least Rs 5 crore to develop and maintain the system since March-end,” said a source.