Govt employees' holiday canceled on May 23

The weekly holiday on Saturday (May 23) has been canceled for government officials and employees. However, they will get seven consecutive days of leave in the last week of May. This decision was taken at a cabinet meeting held at the Secretariat under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Thursday night (May 7). This information was confirmed in a press release of the Cabinet Division after the meeting.

The notification said that as per the government decision, there will be a consecutive holiday from May 25 to May 31. To coordinate this long holiday, the scheduled weekly holiday on Saturday, May 23 has been canceled. As a result, all government offices will remain open on that day and officials and employees will have to work regularly.

In the same meeting, the cabinet approved the draft of the 'National Public Toilet Policy 2026' to improve the country's sanitation system. The main objective of this policy is to ensure the availability of healthy and quality public toilet facilities across the country and to increase awareness among the public about its maintenance. This policy has given special emphasis on ensuring user-friendly toilet facilities, especially for women, children, the disabled, the elderly and marginalized groups. The government considers this to be a groundbreaking step in improving the quality of public health and cleanliness.

The policy states that an effective management model and financing will be ensured for the long-term effectiveness of public toilets. In addition, the policy will be updated as needed by regularly monitoring and evaluating this system. The relevant ministries, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, will take special activities to create awareness among students about healthy toilet usage rules. In addition, it has been made mandatory to have separate toilets for women in any physical infrastructure construction project in the future.

Strict instructions have been given in this policy for environmental protection. All toilets must have their own septic tanks to store waste. It has been asked to ensure that toilet waste does not mix with rivers, canals, beels or any other water bodies and cause water pollution. In addition, the local government and the Road Transport Department have been directed to work in coordination to build separate toilets for men and women at appropriate places on the highway. The cabinet has directed each ministry to prepare a time-bound action plan to implement this policy.