Chandigarh, January 18
Punjab declared a public holiday today to mourn the death of CPM veteran Jyoti Basu. And if declaring a public holiday is a show of sorrow, then no other state in the country other than West Bengal was “grieved” enough.
In fact the Punjab government is the most leisurely state to work in the region. Take this year for example. The Punjab government has issued a list of 32 public holidays for 2010. The government will also observe 18 restricted holidays. Since 15 of the public holidays fall on Saturdays and Sundays, the total number of working days this year would have been 244.
With today being declared a holiday another day has been reduced and one can only hope that all other national leaders of Jyoti Basu’s stature remain in good health throughout the year to ensure that the Punjab government works on the rest of these days!
Haryana has issued a list of 29 public holidays and only 10 restricted holidays for this year. The number of working days in Haryana would also be 244 as 12 of these holidays fall of Saturdays and Sundays.
Himachal Pradesh will have only 22 public holidays this year and has offered 16 restricted holidays. And that seems to be the reason that the state has reported remarkable performance in the region in implementing several national schemes of employment and education.
This year the government of India would have only 17 public holidays and has issued a list of 26 restricted holidays. The Chandigarh administration has the 17 government of India public holidays and 12 restricted holidays.
Last year, state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal had proposed to revise the system of holidays in the state, but like his several other moves, this too was shelved following pressures from various quarters. The proposal envisaged the revival
of the system of public holidays in Punjab under the British rule when holidays were area and culture specific so that the rest of the state continued to work.
Manpreet Badal who is representing the state at Jyoti Basu’s funeral tomorrow said, “There are no easy solutions for nations to rise except for working hard each day of the year. The patriots in whose name we have holidays today died for the nation and did not have any day as a holiday. I believe that even Saturdays and Sundays should be working days in Punjab.”
“Even though it might have been a decision taken following a genuine sense of loss felt by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, it does not justify having yet another day of no work in the state,” said a visibly distraught Sundar Singh outside the main secretariat here today. Sundar Singh and several others like him had started in buses very early in the morning for Chandigarh to reach in time to get their works done.
“We came to know only on reaching here that today is a holiday,” he added.
