17 government printing presses to merge, jobs will be protected: Jaitley

New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) The Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to merge into five entities all the 17 government printing presses across the country without causing any job losses.

The decision about the "merger and modernization" 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".

"All the jobs will be protected," the Minister said.

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