Government of Punjab has declared 18 gazetted holidays and 39 restricted holidays for the calendar year 2018. The Punjab Government employees will now be eligible to avail 5 restricted holidays, whereas earlier they could avail only 2 restricted holidays.Disclosing this here today, an official spokesman of Punjab Government said that Government of Punjab has decided to reduce the number of gazetted holidays for the calendar year 2018 so as to enable better public service to the citizens and also to ensure more teaching days in educational institutions. “With this reform, the State Government offices will remain open for 21 more days in 2018 as compared to the previous year 2017. At the same time Government employees will be able to avail of more restricted holidays than previously, in keeping with their preferences”, he added.Divulging further, he said that the State Government has tried to strike a balance between its commitment to better public service, more teaching days in education institutions on the one hand and the requirements of its employees to avail of holidays on the other. “Now the number of gazetted holidays in Punjab (only 18) are comparable to the number of holidays by Government of India which has declared 17 gazetted holidays for the calendar year 2018”, he added.It can be mentioned here that for the year 2017 Government of Punjab had declared 37 gazetted holidays and 20 Restricted Holidays. Employees were allowed 2 restricted holidays.