A delegation of the British Army being welcomed at an event to commemorate the Battle of Saragarhi in Ludhiana on Monday. September 12 is a state holiday on account of the occasion. Photo: Ashwani Dhiman

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 11

The Punjab Government’s declaration of holiday on Tuesday to commemorate the famed Battle of Saragarhi — on which Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has recently penned a book — is an addition to the 137 days off that were already scheduled for government employees this year. That includes weekends and the 33 official holidays.Any days closed on account of law and order situations or elections in the state would be over and above the now-138. This means Punjab offices remain closed for around 40 per cent of the days. The obvious question to ask, therefore, is do we really need to declare holidays to commemorate special days?A woman clerk’s response in the Civil Secretariat was on expected lines: “What’s the harm? We work overtime on several days, even on weekends, but don’t get paid extra for that. It has become a fad to term government employees lethargic.” She did not want to be identified.A male colleague joined in to say government work was not affected by such holidays, “We have to work extra a day before or after a holiday.”Nazar Singh Manshahia, a former government employee and now an AAP MLA, disagreed, “It disrupts the working of the system and affects the economy too. We have to find better ways to commemorate special days and events. Instead of declaring a holiday to mark the Battle of Saragarhi, the government should have organised programmes to discuss the significance of the day. Not even 10 employees would be visiting any memorial or function on the day. This is no tribute.”He even suggested that in case a holiday is declared for such days, or due to any law and order problem, as happened recently on account of the dera tension, then subsequent weekends should be declared working days to make up for the loss.Prof Pramod Kumar, Director, Institute of Development and Communication, whose suggestions on governance reforms were implemented earlier by the SAD-BJP government, said Punjab needed to take a leaf from the Uttar Pradesh Government, which in April this year stopped the practice of declaring holidays on birth and death anniversaries or any special days.Manisha Beri, director of a travel company in Chandigarh, said: “Days off must be affecting productivity, but for a business like ours, holidays come as a boon, especially if these come close to weekends.”Parambans Singh Romana, a spokesperson of the Youth Akali Dal, said it was good that Saragarhi Day was being commemorated.