The Hindu : New Delhi News : Extended holidays: Govt. staff revel, parties worry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 30, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Extended holidays: Govt. staff revel, parties worry

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI, APRIL 29. Government employees in the Capital these days are busy preparing for a chunk of holidays that are coming their way starting this week-end. While the first four days of holidays begin this Saturday, the other three days of leave will commence next week-end when offices will remain closed on Monday (May 10) also for polling.

Prophet Mohammad's birthday (Milad-Un-Nabi) on May 3 (Monday) has been declared a government holiday while Buddh Purnima on May 4 (Tuesday) is another gazetted holiday. Similarly, people are getting three day off starting May 8, so a lot of government employees are planning to go on long leave as they just need three causal leave between May 5 and 7 to get a complete 10-day break.

With voting for general elections in the Capital only less than two weeks away, the long list of holidays is also giving jitters to all Lok Sabha candidates in the Capital who fear poor turnout during polling. "First we were fearing low response from voters due to sultry weather in May but this new combination of holidays might really harm the prospects of our candidates," said a senior BJP leader, adding that the party cadres were being asked to urge people not to leave Delhi and come out and vote in good numbers.

Interestingly, in the office of various government agencies including the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the Delhi Tourism Department has put up posters announcing attractive tour packages. "A lot of employees are likely to take LTA (leave travel allowance) during this period, so other travel agencies have also come up with advertisements in all leading dailies trying to woo these prospective visitors with attractive tour packages," said a senior government official.

Those employed in the private sector and government corporations are chalking out plans to make complete use of forthcoming holidays by pushing off to some nearby hill station. However, all the government employees might not be so lucky as a large number of them will have to perform election duties. But still these employees want to take complete advantage of the first set of holidays and plan to extend it till the week-end and then join for election duties.

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