Letter to Editor on Odisha Bundh

Dear Editor,

For yesterday i.e. 08.12.2020 Odisha Government declared holiday for all Government offices and added a phrase that all essential services will remain opened. All happy, obviously. Ever cheating Government officials get a day’s rest approved by Government itself, general population is happy because emergency services won’t be hampered, farmers/ protestors are happy that our Government has supported them and Government is happy that there won’t be any serious chaos. Goal achieved and Ramarajya acquired! 

But as a taxpayer who has been paying tax heavily and sincerely for past 18 years, I ask why Govt didn’t add a sentence how they are going to adjust the day’s work cancelling a holiday or a Sunday? Probably for this very reason today also people prefer to join a Government job desperately. Has anyone pondered over the man-hour loss due to a day off? Certainly healthcare, Police and the likes alone do not fall in the category of essential services now. 

An old retired person who had planned to visit Govt office for his pension paper works had to wait for another day in uncertainty and anguish. What about the son who came all the way from another city to visit his ailing parents, who has to wait in the airport in anxiety for an extra hour? What about the vegetable vendor or the petty shopkeeper who was obstructed going to work- can Government compensate for the loss? No, it can distribute free rice and ration from tax-payer’s money.

How can Government declare holiday for schools and Government offices for an illegal act like Bundh? Where are we really heading to? Is it true democracy?