With several holidays, Bengal govt staff set for ‘relaxing’ November

On Thursday and Friday (November 7 and 8), the state government has announced holidays for Chhath Puja, with Saturday and Sunday (November 9 and 10) being regular holidays.

The next holiday is on November 15 (Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary), which happens to be a Friday and state government employees are in for another long weekend. They will also get holidays on November 23 and 24 (Saturday and Sunday) and November 30 is also a Saturday. December 1 is a Sunday.

In December, however, apart from Saturdays and Sundays, state government employees will get only one holiday for Christmas on December 25 (Wednesday).

A senior state government official, who did not wish to be named, said on Monday, “This is almost a tradition of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government. Every year, the government gives extra holidays during these festive months so that its employees get holidays for five to ten days at a stretch. However, it does to some extent hamper the government’s official day-to-day work and service to the people.”