West Bengal has announced a list of holidays for the State Government employees for 2022, a largesse that’s a repeat of the preceding two years.
As per the State Government’s 2022 calendar, unveiled last week, the total number of public holidays in West Bengal stood at 48. It’s a different matter that 11 of these happen to be Sundays, something that beneficiaries are unhappy about.
“The debt-ridden Government is unable to hike our dearness allowance — the DA we earn is about 30% less than what the Central Government employees get — that’s why it is compensating us with holidays,” a civil servant told The Hindu .
The officer, unlike many other State Government employees, didn’t seem too perturbed about the fact that many of the public holidays fall on a Sunday in 2022. “The Government, I am sure, will make up for this,” the officer said.
Making up for clash
In fact, the list already makes up for one clash: usually, the day after Saraswati Puja is also a holiday but since the next day is a Sunday, the day before Saraswati Puja has been declared a holiday.
The Government employees will also get to stay away from work for one-third of the month of October, thanks to Durga Puja. Puja holidays begin on September 30 and stretch to October 10. Kali Puja will see a three-day closure.
It was in late 2019 that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, often accused by her adversaries of being partial to Muslims, had doubled, in the 2020 calendar, the number of holidays given for several Hindu festivals. She obviously had an eye on the Assembly elections. But those extra holidays are now a permanent part of the State Government calendar. Saraswati Puja, Holi, Chhat and Id-ul-Fitr are now marked with two-day holidays.
The festivals of Shivaratri and Janmashtami were also notified as public holidays in late 2019.
