Government offices, boards and corporations to reopen only next Tuesday.
With government offices closed for Diwali, the state government has come to a grinding halt and it will remain so for at least a week.
Chief Minister Narendra Modi will celebrate Diwali in Gandhinagar, even as most of the ministers will celebrate the festival in their constituencies. However, a few have also taken off for short vacations during the break.
State government offices are closed for six straight days from Wednesday to Monday. October 29, the fifth Saturday of the month, would have been a working day, but the government has declared it a holiday and announced that offices would instead remain open on November 12 to compensate for the additional holiday.
The offices will also remain closed on Monday in view of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's birth anniversary on October 31.
A number of bureaucrats have also left for holidays. It is learnt that many of the babus are visiting Mumbai, Gir and Kutch, among other places for short vacations to unwind themselves, and also to get ready for the upcoming Garib Kalyan Melas and other government events.
The government offices, as well as offices of boards and corporations, will reopen from Tuesday, i.e. November 1, but it would take at least one more week for the corridors of power to come back to life as employees and officials return from their holidays.
Meanwhile, officials said that the CM will exchange New Year greetings with citizens at the Community Hall in Gandhinagar from 8am to 8.45am on Thursday, and from 8.50 am at Raj Bhavan.
The CM will also meet citizens at Circuit House Annexe at Shahibaug from 10.15am to 11am, and meet police officers and jawans at Senior Police Officers' Mess. He will also visit the Panchdev temple in Gandhinagar, Bhadrakali temple in Ahmedabad and the BAPS temple at Shahibaug.
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