The Bengal government has declared a holiday on January 29 on account of Saraswati Puja, in addition to January 30 and 31, after it realised that the festival would be celebrated on Wednesday, too.

“The State Government had declared holidays on January 30 and January 31 in connection with Saraswati Puja under this Department Notification No. 5962-F(P2) & 5964-F(P2) both dated 01.11.2019. Now, it has come to notice that Saraswati Puja will also be celebrated on January 29 (Wednesday). In view of this, the State Government has decided to declare holiday on January 29, 2020,” reads a notification issued by the state finance department on Monday.

Sources in the government said when the list of holidays was being prepared initially, officials were informed that Saraswati Puja would be celebrated on January 30. But as all schools in the state were preparing to organise Saraswati Puja on January 29 following Bengali “Panjika”, the government was forced to declare an additional holiday on Wednesday.

The additional holiday has given an opportunity to nearly 8 lakh employees of the state government and the staff of state aided institutions to enjoy a long weekend as the holidays announced earlier on Thursday (January 30) and Friday (January 31) were not withdrawn.

A section of the officials, however, asked why the state government did not withdraw the holidays announced earlier after it was realised that Saraswati Puja would be celebrated a day ahead.

“The state government had given two holidays on account of Saraswati Puja earlier. If the holidays are being advanced by one day, the state should have withdrawn the holiday declared on January 31,” said a bureaucrat.