Bhubaneswar: While shortage of staff in many of its departments has impaired the administration, the state government Saturday announced the fourth Saturday of every month as a “general holiday”. At present, second Saturday of every month is a holiday for the government employees.
According to sources, there are at least 44 declared and optional government holidays every year. Apart from this, 12 second Saturdays and 52 Sundays are also holidays. Altogether, the government employees, will now get more than 100 holidays a year in addition to their casual, medical and earned leaves.
As per a notification issued by the General Administration department in this regard, the first half of every 4th Saturday which has been declared as a general holiday shall be devoted by the heads of offices at all levels of state government for deliberating on implementation of five Ts (Technology, Teamwork, Transparency and Time leading to Transformation), Training and brainstorming sessions related to innovative ideas for progress and development of the state.
This apart, the state government has also revised the day-to-day working hours in all the government offices from 10 am to 5:30pm with a lunch break of 30 minutes from 1:30pm to 2pm. The revised timings, however, are not applicable to vacation departments including schools and courts, the notification reads.
