If you are in Uttar Pradesh, you can stay at home for more than half a year in 2016.The list of holidays being compiled by the general administration department for 2016 shows that out of 365 days in
If you are in Uttar Pradesh, you can stay at home for more than half a year in 2016.The list of holidays being compiled by the general administration department for 2016 shows that out of 365 days in 2016, every government employee will get around 201 holidays.
No other state in the country can boast of so many holidays.A senior official in the general administration department said, “The politics of holidays has almost wreaked havoc with the work culture in the state. Apart from 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays, every employee is entitled to 30 days of earn leave, 14 days’ casual leave and also medical leave. Besides, holidays like, Holi, Diwali, Republic Day, Independence Day, Moharram, Ugadi, Janamashtami and Eid lead to extended leave if they get clubbed with weekends.” The government has further elongated the list of holidays by announcing ten more holidays this year.
These include holidays on the anniversaries of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Chandra Shekhar, Acharya Narendra Dev, Karpoori Thakur, the birthday of Prophet, birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap and on Chhath festival.
The birth anniversaries of Maharishi Kashyap and Maharishi Nishadraj Jayanti have also been declared a holiday along with the annual “urs” of Hazrat Ajmeri Garib Nawaj at Ajmer. Most of these holidays have been declared on request by different caste groups, majority of them representing OBC groups.
A former chief secretary said that the politics of holidays was destroying the work culture which, in any case, needed drastic improvement.
“UP is known for the laid back approach of its employees and the red-tapism that impedes progress. The abundance of holidays will only serve to add to this. As chief secretary, I had faced these problems when the five-day week system was introduced. Most of the employees would start leaving office after lunch on Fridays and they would get into work mode from Monday afternoon, which meant that out of seven days in the week, we were working only for four days,” he said.
