How govt officials strung up holy days for long holiday

The Vidhana Soudha, the seat of power, wore a deserted look on Tuesday with a majority of the secretariat staff having applied leave to enjoy themselves a long extended weekend, following the series of government holidays falling this week.

There are only three working days this week with October 14 (Monday - Vijayadashami), October 16 (Wednesday- Bakrid) and October 18 (Friday - Valmiki Jayanti) being holidays. What more, October 17 (Thursday) is Tula Sankramana, a restricted holiday (RH). Making the best use of the closed days, several employees working in the secretariat have applied leave on Tuesday, Saturday and opted for RH on Thursday to pave way for an uninterrupted nine-day stretch of holidays. The ‘vacation’ started from October 12, a second Saturday (a closed day for government offices).

According to police personnel manning the gates of Vidhana Soudha, only 25 per cent of the total staff turned up on Tuesday.

Innu en idru somavarane (which means ‘Only from Monday, things will move’) was perhaps the oft-repeated phrase in the corridors of power.

The holiday season was not just for government employees, but also ministers and their staff. Not a single minister turned up at Vidhana Soudha and Vikas Soudha, where their offices are located, on Tuesday. The Bangalore Rural district review meeting, to be chaired by district incharge minister Krishna Byregowda and scheduled at Vikasa Soudha on Tuesday afternoon, was cancelled.

Meetings of various legislature committees which were scheduled to be held on Tuesday were also cancelled. Satish, an employee in the chief minister’s secretariat, said many employees, especially those from North Karnataka, had left for their hometowns.

There is another series of holidays coming in the next few days. November 1 (Friday) is a holiday on account of Kannada Rajyotsava, November 2 (Saturday) is a holiday on account of Naraka Chaturdashi, Sunday is anyway the weekly holiday and November 4 (Monday) is a holiday on account of Balipadyami.