With Diwali being celebrated right in the middle of the week, most government offices are likely to be empty with staffers taking long vacations.
During the entire next week when everyone celebrates Diwali and if you decide to go to a government office, think twice. With Diwali being celebrated right in the middle of the week, most government offices are likely to be empty with staffers taking long vacations.
This year, the state and central government employees are the happiest of the lot. After Friday evening, if they just take three days of earned leave, they will be entitled to nine days leave at a stretch.
While most state government offices work on first and third Saturdays, all the central government offices have a five-day-week.
“If I take a casual leave on Monday (October 24), Tuesday (October 25) and Saturday (October 29), I can easily get about 9 days off work,” said an official from the state urban development department.
“As many as 25% of the state government officers and employees will be on leave during the next two weeks,” estimated another senior state government official. “There are many employees in Mantralaya, as well as other state government offices, who are not from Mumbai. The festive season gives them a perfect chance to visit their hometowns. However, work naturally suffers during this period,” he said requesting anonymity.
GN Kulthe, general secretary of the gazetted officers association, did admit that such long leave should be curtailed in the larger public interest. However, he blamed the state administration.
“This year, the official Diwali holiday was only on October 26 and 27. But the government declared October 28 also a government holiday. Our organisation definitely is not in favour of so many holidays. We do admit that this is festive season and people want to enjoy good time with their families. However, there has to be some limit to it,” said Kulthe.
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