US govt shuts down, 8L workers will not get paid

WASHINGTON: The US government began a partial shutdown on Tuesday for the first time in 17 years, after Congress failed to end a bitter budget row.

The White House budget office ordered government departments to start closing down, triggering 8,00,000 furloughs (temporary leave of absence) of federal workers, and shutting down national monuments, parks and museums.

From Tuesday, only vital functions like mail delivery, air traffic control and visa services will continue as normal.

On a day of dysfunction, Republicans tied new government funding to attempts to defund, delay or dismantle US President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, also known as Obamacare. Each time, their effort was killed by Obama’s allies in the Democratic-led Senate, leaving the government in limbo when its money ran out at the end of the fiscal year at Monday midnight.