Tamil Nadu: A Long Holiday for Pongal This Year

 Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin’s decision to declare January 17, Friday, as a holiday for government offices, schools, colleges and educational institutions in the State will give students, teachers and office-goers an extended, 6-day long, Pongal vacation, starting from January 14, the day of the State’s most celebrated festival.

Already the government has declared January 14, 15 and 16 (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) as closed holidays for offices and educational institutions and by adding January 17, the government would be helping people avail a 6 day continuous holiday as January 18 and 19 are closed for the weekend.

An official press release said that the move was to enable people living away from their home towns and families for work to have a long 6-day holiday with their loved ones in their native places. However, those who would be getting the special holiday on January 17 would have to work on January 25, Saturday, to compensate for it, the official press release said.

Interestingly, January 13 is Bhogi, falling on Monday, which is not a closed government holiday for all. So, those working five days in a week can take one day leave on January 13 and get away from work for 9 consecutive days, starting from January 11 which is a Saturday.

While trains and long distance buses, both private and government, have already been fully booked in advance for the long Pongal holidays, the highways leading out of Chennai to various places in the State and also neighbouring States would be witnessing chock-a-block traffic, starting from January 10 as people may choose different days to head to their native places for Pongal celebrations.

Since Pongal is a quintessentially pastoral festival, celebrating a good harvest and other things that are distinctly rural in nature, most people having their roots in villages and small towns invariably reach their native places for the holidays.

After a long celebration with family members and friends, the urban dwellers from the villages will all be returning to Chennai to report for duty on January 20, Monday, which is likely to lead to a vehicular chaos on January 19, Sunday, and January 20, on all roads causing traffic jams, snarls and hold ups.

Such a huge inflow of vehicles into the metropolis is also expected to exacerbate the traffic problems inside the city besides slowing down the vehicular movement on the highways and causing long queues at the toll gates.