Weekly holiday and man hour wastage

By Rezaul Huq Lalmatia, Dhaka
18 December 2005, 18:00 PM
Much has been said in favour of making one and a half day weekly holiday on Saturday-Sunday instead of present two days weekly holiday on Friday-Saturday. In a bid to save fuel cost the government has introduced two days weekly holiday but proper evaluation in respect of actual savings is still unknown. We gained an experience recently during the holding of 13thmeeting of Saarc on Saturday-Sunday in our capital during weekly holidays in all other six member countries. The distinguished and high profile guests without spoiling working days in their country fully utilised weekend here in the official busy schedule and citing security reasons our weekly holiday was stretched to Sunday also in Dhaka and as a result we lost three working days. The right honourable finance Minister must have had a first hand calculation of total loss in economic terms incurred during three holidays following a long Eid vacation. We could have avoided the loss if there were Saturday-Sunday weekly holiday in our country as well.

Wastage of man hour is another area totally ignored by all strata of management. They declare unnecessary holidays on different occasions.

Therefore, without wasting any further time the government should positively respond to the demand of the majority citizens to declare one and a half day weekly holiday on Saturday-Sunday and reduce annual religious holidays by at least three/four days for the sake of national economy and posterity.