Labour department counting Sakshi employees

HYDERABAD:  Labour department officials are burning the midnight oil to list the number of employees working in Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s media firms at the behest of the Central Bureau of Investigation.The CBI wants to know the exact number of employees hired by Jagati Publications Limited which brings out Sakshi Telugu newspaper and Indira Television, the promoters of Sakshi TV news channel, after the two firms in a petition before the court said that more than 20,000 employees would be affected by the freezing of the companies’ bank accounts.Jagati Publications told the court that 20,000 people were employed by it, while Indira Television is providing employment to more than 1,000 people. The firms contended that the families of the employees, apart from others who are directly or indirectly dependent on the running of the firms, would be affected by the freezing of accounts.With the matter scheduled to come up before the court on Monday, the CBI asked the labour department to furnish the number of employees all over the state at the earliest.Though Second Saturday and Sunday are holidays for government employees, labour department officials worked day and night compiling the data of the employees of the two firms across the state. It is likely to supply the list to the CBI by Sunday. The labour department also had to submit a report to the State Human Rights Commission on the same issue and the report would come in handy for them also .