Maharashtra Government Blocks Facebook In Its Office

In the recent past, we have witnessed a lot of flak with regards to Facebook Banned in Pakistan . The reasons for the ban were cited as users being uploading images of Prophet Muhammad. Apparently, it was a religious issue and the authorities had to ban Facebook.

But, in what seems like a funny revelation, Maharashtra government has banned Facebook in the Mantralaya (Office). The reason for blocking the social networking site has been cited as Employees whiling away their time on Facebook during office hours as mentioned by a senior official,

We decided to block the site as many employees were seen spending hours on it, (Source)

As usual, the employees opposed the move and mentioned that they only used Facebook during lunch hours and their work has not suffered due to this. But, the internet department had enough of it and banned the website altogether.

Now, what made this news sound surprising and funny to me is is that the only minister I heard who did put social media to good use- Mr.Shahsi Tharoor but got lambasted for using the platform. I am not going to go into the details of that incident for obvious reasons but apart from that, do we actually have employees/ministers in the mantralaya networking with their friends or the people out there. I have my doubts but I am really curious to understand as to what they are actually doing on Facebook. 🙂

On a positive note, if the Maharashtra government has seriously taken this step to boost employee productivity, could this be taken as a sign of government going the corporate way. If not anything else, this move might set a good example in other ministries when it comes to employees making the best use of their time when they are in office.

What are your thoughts in this regard? Do you really think that Maharashtra government is right in banning Facebook at their offices? Write in your comments.