Fewer holidays in 2013, blame the weekends

Weekends just snipped your 2013 holiday list short. Five of the 14 gazetted holidays are on a Saturday or a Sunday. Even Diwali and Dussehra are on Sundays. Aloke Tikku reports. Count these out

Weekends just snipped your 2013 holiday list short. Five of the 14 gazetted holidays are on a Saturday or a Sunday. Even Diwali and Dussehra are on Sundays.

Since India - unlike countries such as the US - doesn't have a system of compensatory offs for holidays clashing with weekends, there will effectively be just nine gazetted holidays apart from three more, depending on which part of the country you work.

Other than the 14 compulsory holidays, notified last week, government offices in Delhi and much of north will remain close for Holi, Ram Navami and Janmashtami - all three are on weekdays.

The "trimmed" list, however, has four extended weekends. Four gazetted holidays are on Fridays. Two will be in April - Good Friday and Ram Navami - coinciding with school and college holidays.

Good time to plan a quick break.

The government is under pressure to cut holidays. The fifth and sixth pay commissions wanted only three national holidays, Republic Day, Independence Day and Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, but the government said no.