NL Correspondent
Jammu Tawi, Sept 28:
To be a government employee is like being born lucky in India and if somehow one manages it on the rolls of the J&K government, it is further blessing. In Jammu and Kashmir, the government employees and officers are a pampered lot enjoying all pay and perks with almost traceable accountability and nearly half a year on holidays if deployed at the secretariat. These government staffers will get another jackpot of 16 days' paid holidays in the coming October month as per the official list of Holidays already notified by the Jammu Kashmir Administration. The Administration will go on Holidays beginning from Gandhi Jayanti on October 02 to the last Saturday –Sunday falling Oct 30-31 with 15 ‘working days' in-between.
Many officials will enjoy more than 16 days of Holidaying by prefixing and suffixing with casual, sick and earned leaves, a very common practice in vogue.
The number of Bank holidays in the month of October is also quite extensive, to say the least. Since Banks in Jammu Kashmir led by its darling offspring the J&K Bank that almost goes as per the whims of the state/UT government. They will also be off any work at least for 14 days as they will be opening on third and fourth Saturdays falling on 16th and 30th Oct. The public across Jammu Kashmir would be looking at the closed shutter of the Banks in J&K UT for 14 days as even the official list of holidays released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have almost concurrent off-days for the Banks with the weekends in the upcoming calendar month.
Besides Gandhi Jayanti on October falling on Saturday this year, there are ten Saturdays and Sundays in October with other six religious and festival holidays falling on Oct 04 (Urs Shah Noorudin Sahib), Oct. 14 (Mahanavmi), Oct 15 ( Dusshera), Oct 19 ( Eid-ul-Milad ul Nabi), Oct 22 ( Friday following Eid-ul-Milad ul Nabi) and finally Oct 26 the Accession Day- a new addition to Holidays. Thus, the Banks in the UT will tentatively avail 97 days off in the year 2001 if all goes well (that mean – No disturbance in peace, Covid Orders etc.)
Since the government and Bank employees have already planned their itinerary for the upcoming October holidays and keeping all this in mind, it would be advisable to plan the schedule of works relating to the government offices and one's next trip to the bank based on the list of holidays so as to avoid any confusion or hurdles when planning for the next month.
