Bengaluru: High Court Justice A.S. Bopanna has passed an Interim Order asking the Union Government not to hurry the merger or closure of the Government Printing Press in Mysuru.

Justice Bopanna passed the order recently after the Government Text Book Press Workers Association filed a petition before the Karnataka High Court, opposing the decision of the Union Government to close or merge the exclusive Text Book Printing Press in Mysuru.

The judge has also issued notice to the Centre, Director of Printing and the Government of India Text Book Press.

The petition stated that the decision to close or shut down the Printing Press would not only affect the livelihood of the employees but would also cause inconvenience to many Central Government Departments in the State which are depending on the press for printing text books.

Stating that there were 11 Government of India Text Book Presses including the one in Mysuru across the country, the association said that the Text Book Press in Mysuru was established in 1976 and was fulfilling the text book requirements as well as work orders of various Central Government Departments functioning in the State and added that the Union Government has decided to shut down 11 printing presses in the country and retain only five presses in New Delhi, Nashik and Kolkata.

The association stated that if the Union Government closes the Presses, it would cause severe problems to the Government Departments in South India and added that the action to close all presses in the southern region is arbitrary and violation of equity.

The association in the petition to the High Court also said that if the proposal was implemented, the employees and their families would be required to move to Nashik to save their livelihood and added that the education of the children of the employees would be hampered apart from language and re-settlement issues.

The association also stated that the Centre and the Director of Printing have begun to close the presses by issuing directions not to take work orders and to speed up the pending works before March 31, 20128 and calling for various particulars of workers, machineries and equipment from all presses.