October was a festive month that began with a holiday on Gandhi Jayanti and wound up with Durga Puja, Lakshmi Puja and Kali Puja festivities. Similarly, there will be a number of holidays in November as well. November 2 and 3 are a Saturday and Sunday, with ‘Bhaiphonta’ on November 3. So, the state government has declared additional holidays on Friday (November 1) and Monday (November 4). Thus, from October 31 (Kali Puja), government employees will get five holidays.

On Thursday and Friday (November 7 and 8), the state government has announced holidays for Chhath Puja, with Saturday and Sunday (November 9 and 10) being regular holidays.

The next holiday is on November 15 (Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary), which happens to be a Friday and state government employees are in for another long weekend. They will also get holidays on November 23 and 24 (Saturday and Sunday) and November 30 is also a Saturday. December 1 is a Sunday.

In December, however, apart from Saturdays and Sundays, state government employees will get only one holiday for Christmas on December 25 (Wednesday).

A senior state government official, who did not wish to be named, said on Monday, “This is almost a tradition of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government. Every year, the government gives extra holidays during these festive months so that its employees get holidays for five to ten days at a stretch. However, it does to some extent hamper the government’s official day-to-day work and service to the people.”