Bhubaneswar, March 12 -- In a major move, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced a hike in annual casual leave of women government employees by 10 days.

The official release from the Chief Minister's Office stated that women employees working in various departments of the government shall now be entitled to 25 days of casual leave annually as against 15 days of temporary leave given to government employees.

The decision to increase the annual casual leave for women was taken considering their various responsibilities at home and other areas, the notice stated.

It is worth mentioning that Odisha was the first state in the country to take a trailblazing step like reserving 33 per cent of government jobs for women in the 1990s...