CM Pinarayi Vijayan's directive has positive impact
Floral carpets were laid at five places in secretariat premises and most of the work had been completed well before the office hours.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While the Left-led staff unions made it a point to adhere to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s directive against celebrating Onam during office hours, their rivals the Congress-led associations maintained that the order was impractical. The members of the secretariat association owing allegiance to the Congress were seen giving final touches to the floral carpet even after 10.15 am. Floral carpets were laid at five places in secretariat premises and most of the work had been completed well before the office hours.
Local bodies minister K.T. Jaleel, agriculture minister V.S. Sunil Kumar and Kadannappally Ramachandran had inaugurated the floral carpets before office hours. Even the floral carpet laid in front of the chief minister’s block was completed after 10.30 am. According to association members, they could not complete the floral carpets before time to show that the directive was impractical. However, many of the members decided to work extra time to make up for the loss of office time in the morning.
While there were minor violations of the directive at some places, people had a sigh of relief as there were no day long celebrations like in the past. Many felt that the chief minister’s directive had made a huge difference setting a healthy precedent. The staff had celebrated Onam during the lunch time. The members belonging to different organisations had organised events like tug of war during lunch break on Monday. Some of the departments had also organised Onam celebrations on Sunday.