Of 365 days, Assam Govt employees work just for 252 days. A fact check

Guwahati: In a state like Assam, state government employees would be working for only 252 days of 365 days in 2020.

With 35 public holidays along with 2 half-day holidays for Muharram and Lakshmi Puja and 1 day on account of Annual Closing of Bank Accounts, Assam has introduced three new holidays for this year -Sati Sadhani Divas on 20th April, the celebration of Bodo Accord on 7th February and Gorkha Bhai Tika on 16th November.

Here's a fact check of the number of holidays and working days for Assam government employees in 2020-

Given all the Sundays and second and fourth Saturdays in the year 2020, state government employees enjoy the respite of 113 days in total. They are also allowed to avail 2 extra days as leave from the restricted holiday list.

Assam's GDP rank is 17 with 8.5% growth. It is projected to be Rs 4,08,627 crore, an increase of 12.4% over the revised estimate for 2019-20.

Holidays are strongly linked to the state's economic graph where an increase in holiday results in leisure time whereas, it may increase the happiness of an individual too.

The addition of extra holidays to the state's list of Public holidays is susceptible to criticism on several grounds. Too many holidays attract negative effect on output.

An argument for the distribution of holidays is that it should be tailored and flexible according to the work-load of different sectors rather than historical-cultural calendar which adds to clogging of transport and tourism infrastructure.

However, holidays enable celebration and expression of religious, cultural, linguistic and other social identities, which is mentioned in the Indian Constitution in Articles 29 and 30 which recognise cultural rights as well as in Article 51 which gives the fundamental duty to all Indian citizens to value and protect their heritage.

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