look news india
The upcoming year’s holiday calendar is bringing happiness as well as some regrets for the government employees, teachers, bank employees and school-college students of Uttarakhand. Analysis of the holiday system and almanac of the General Administration Department makes it clear that many major gazetted and restricted holidays of the state are falling on Saturday or Sunday. Generally Saturday (especially second Saturday and in offices with five-day work week) and Sunday are regular weekly holidays. In such a situation, festivals falling on weekends are considered a direct loss of holidays for the employees. However, it is a matter of relief that many festivals in the calendar are falling on Friday and Monday, which will provide a great opportunity to celebrate and travel for a long weekend of 3 to 4 days several times throughout the year.
According to the upcoming calendar, many big national festivals and religious festivals are falling on the weekend. Mainly these:
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Mahashivratri: The holy festival of Mahashivratri is falling on Saturday.
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Independence Day (15 August): The country’s biggest national festival, Independence Day, is falling on Sunday, due to which additional leave will not be available.
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Vijayadashami (Dussehra): Major festival Dussehra is also scheduled on Saturday.
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Govardhan Puja: The holiday of Govardhan Puja, which falls the next day after Diwali, is coming on Saturday.
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Guru Ravidas Jayanti and Maharishi Valmiki Jayanti: These two important anniversaries of great men are also falling on Saturday and Sunday.
Whenever a major holiday falls on a Sunday, the leave granted on that day gets merged into the weekly holiday, due to which the employees are not able to get an additional day of rest.
Despite the loss of holidays on Saturday and Sunday, it is turning out to be a wonderful ‘long weekend’ for tourism lovers and employees posted in remote districts. If you combine the weekend with Friday or Monday holidays, you get 3 straight days of break without taking extra leave:
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Good Friday: Due to Good Friday being a holiday on Friday, we are getting the first big weekend of 3 straight days including Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
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Mahavir Jayanti: This holiday is falling on Monday, making a 3-day holiday of Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
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Eid-ul-Zuha/Bakrid: This festival is also likely to fall on Monday, which will result in 3 consecutive days of holiday combined with the weekend.
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Harela festival: Uttarakhand’s folk festival ‘Harela’ is falling on Friday (16th July). Harela’s public holiday on Friday and subsequent holiday on Saturday and Sunday will give full opportunity to the employees to travel for 3 consecutive days.
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Diwali mega-weekend: The main festival of Diwali is coming on Friday (29 October). Diwali on Friday, Govardhan Puja on Saturday and then the biggest festive weekend of 3 consecutive days on Sunday will be very convenient for the employees.
In recent years, the state government has strengthened the tradition of declaring public holidays for the folk festivals related to the cultural identity of Devbhoomi Uttarakhand. In Kumaon and Garhwal, due to holiday on Friday on ‘Harela’ festival, symbol of new crop and greenery, local people will be able to easily go to their villages. The traditional holiday of ‘Igas-Bagwal’ (Old Diwali) of Garhwal division is falling on Wednesday (10 November). If an employee takes one or two Casual Leaves (CL) of Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday, he can plan a mini vacation for the full five days.
Not all employees get the same benefits of holidays in Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand Secretariat, Assembly and many directorates located in Dehradun work on a 5-day week i.e. from Monday to Friday. For these offices, festivals falling on Saturday are a direct loss of holidays. On the other hand, a 6-day week is implemented in the Collectorate, Tehsil, Education Department, Police and other field level government offices in the districts, where only the second Saturday of the month and all Sundays are official holidays. For such field workers, festivals falling on Saturday definitely provide the benefit of a formal holiday.
The economy of Uttarakhand largely depends on tourism and pilgrimage. Whenever there is a continuous weekend of 3 to 4 days in the plain states like Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, there is a huge rush of tourists on the Mussoorie, Nainital, Rishikesh, Lansdowne, Auli and Chardham Yatra routes. In the coming year, these long weekends during Good Friday, Harela and Diwali will prove to be very fruitful in terms of business for the hoteliers, homestay operators, taxi drivers and local handicraft traders of the state.