Puja Vacations – The Ministry of No Paintings: The vacations haven’t simply begun; it’s been raining vacations all yr,

At first of this month, Bengal leader minister Mamata Banerjee declared the day after Christmas a state vacation. In July this yr, she had declared an 11-day vacation for Bengal. Why? To have a good time the Unesco heritage tag for Calcutta’s Durga Puja. And with that, the rely of October’s “no paintings days” went up from 8 to fourteen. This determine didn’t come with Sundays.

No paintings day is officialese for vacations — state in addition to the ones declared by way of the Centre — and any comparable announcement affects those that paintings within the public sector, faculties and faculties, executive and personal alike. Within the closing 10 years, the choice of state vacations has higher in Bengal. In 2022, there have been 29 state vacations as in comparison to 17 in 2012.

Whilst one of the crucial state vacations are explicit to a undeniable geography within the state, others are explicit to a neighborhood. For instance, a few of the not too long ago incorporated vacations is February 14, which is the start date of Rajbanshi chief Panchanan Barma and the vacation is acceptable to Coochbehar best. February 16 is a vacation for the fans of Sikh sant Guru Ravidas. In Thakurnagar within the North 24-Parganas, March 30 is a vacation to commemorate the start anniversary of Hari Chand Thakur, the founding father of the Matua sect. April 16 is Easter Saturday and is a limited vacation intended for the Christian neighborhood; June 30 is Hul Diwas for Adivasis; July 1 was once declared Nationwide Docs’ Day as it’s the birthday of Bidhan Chandra Roy, himself a physician and in addition the primary leader minister of West Bengal. Rath Yatra was once incorporated within the listing of vacations in 2021. August 11 was once declared a vacation at the instance of Raksha Bandhan, September 6 was once Karam Puja for the Santhals, November 15 is tribal chief Birsa Munda’s birthday. A halfday vacation was once introduced on February 7 when Lata Mangeshkar died — the one different state to claim as a lot rather then the singer’s house state of Maharashtra. And when Trinamul minister Sadhan Pandey died in 2022, the next day to come — February 21 — was once declared a half-day vacation.

The Trinamul executive has additionally made it the norm to announce  vacations on dates earlier than and after the true pageant day and named those further vacations. This is applicable to the day earlier than Chhath Puja, the day after Saraswati Puja, Identity, Kali Puja and Christmas. So, the whole vacation tally for Bengal seems like this: 104 Saturdays and Sundays and 45 public vacations.

The query that wishes asking is: can a central authority serve as optimally when it’s on depart for almost half of the yr?

Lots of the other folks this correspondent approached refused to remark, some did however off the document. The Telegraph attempted to touch the West Bengal Commercial Construction Company underneath whose aegis come the state’s business our bodies, however there was once no reaction. Economist Avirup Sarkar says, “There’s no denying the economic system of the state will undergo to an extent. It is going to now not come to a halt, however it is going to serve as much less successfully.”

ficiently when issues are closed down,” says Kaushik Maitra of Sulekha Ink, who revived his trade in Calcutta all over the lockdown. He continues, “The vacations impact us in some ways. They disrupt the chain of commercial. For instance, I manufacture and promote ink. If faculties and places of work are closed for such lengthy classes, gross sales undergo.”

Mitra’s trade comes underneath the class of micro, small and medium enterprises. Many of the large avid gamers of trade both closed down or moved out of Bengal within the Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties; best the IT sector flourished. Do those vacations impact the ones in IT?

“No longer actually,” says Raja Neogi, who works in one of the crucial multinational firms in Salt Lake’s Sector V. However there are dependencies. Other people within the IT trade must go back and forth in another country continuously; new joinees want passports. Says Neogi, “For this, the passport administrative center has a table throughout the corporate precincts. On every occasion there’s a vacation, the table stays closed and Tatkal products and services are pricey.”

Throughout the no paintings days, common products and services of the federal government are unavailable. You can not check in a start, can’t get a demise certificates, mutation, land registration or pay items and products and services tax, and so forth. Truthful value stores too are closed or even the Trinamul initiative for the typical guy — Duare Sarkar — stays suspended.

Public shipping is affected. State executive buses don’t run. “Even native teach products and services are disrupted,” says Sumitra Pathak, who herself is an worker of the railways. Some trains are cancelled. “So there’s numerous crowding within the trains that run that day,” provides Pathak. On account of lowered footfall, smaller companies revel in collateral injury.

Top Minister Narendra Modi stated in what’s now a broadly quoted interview — “If an individual promoting pakodas earns Rs 200 on the finish of the day, will or not it’s regarded as employment or now not?” For all their variations, Mamata Banerjee endorses this concept of the rival birthday party. She too had stated one thing about “chop shilpa” or fritters trade.

But if vacations are declared out of nowhere, that is what occurs to the chop or pakoda dealers. Nimai Halder has a meals stall on Bentinck Side road in central Calcutta. He says, “Previous, I’d do trade throughout the week. However now, executive officials have such a lot of days off. My source of revenue has long gone down.”

An legit of the Bengal Chamber of Trade refused to interact with this factor. He stated, “Our administrative center follows the Nationwide Device Act, 1881, laws with regards to vacations. The vacations that the state executive publicizes in the course of a calendar yr are just for executive places of work. Non-public our bodies don’t seem to be underneath any legal responsibility to stay closed.

However personal our bodies can’t serve as with out the federal government equipment. Tapan Nandi, who runs a Rs 50-crore leather-based items trade, says, “On vacations recordsdata don’t transfer. If we put up a quote in connection with a central authority comfortable name, it stays unacknowledged. It impacts us economically. We can’t unload sewage with out the federal government’s nod.”

A health care provider who works in a central authority health center says on prerequisites of anonymity, “On a state vacation, senior docs are on depart and junior docs and interns are left to control the sufferers.”

11-year-old Arpita Sarkar was once affected by blood most cancers. Throughout Durga Puja this yr, she wanted blood transfusion. The donors have been in a position however the phlebotomists have been on depart. “The little lady died an afternoon after Dashami. Blood transfusion may just now not be achieved,” says her offended neighbour. And so it is going.

No quicker did Argentina raise the 2022 Qatar International Cup than the Bengal memes went viral. The gist of them: Didi, every other instance to have a good time. Please claim but every other vacation. “Neel shadar dibbi… Within the title of all this is white and blue.”

The West Bengal CM had stated now not way back that the state would transform the No. 1 process writer in India in 4 to 5 years. However what use will the ones be, if the vacation listing additionally grows exponentially?