Following the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, the Finance Department has suggested that government should reintroduce the five-days week norm and reduce the total number of holidays from 42 days to 24, a senior official told The Indian Express.

Of these, public holidays are to be brought down from 25 to four (Independence day, Republic Day, Gandhi Jayanti and Maharashtra Day), casual leaves from 12 to four while optional holidays will go up from three to four and local holidays are to be abolished.

According to the official, Maharashtra has largest number of public holidays (25), followed by West Bengal (24), Uttar Pradesh (23), while Kerala and Karnataka has 18 and 19 public holidays respectively. However, leaders of the employees unions were unaware on the revised proposal on holidaysand leaves. ``So far, there is no discussion on the revised proposal,'' Sambhaji Chavan, general secretary of the union affiliated to the Shiv Sena said.

While recommending a steep hike in the wages, the Fifth Pay Commission had asked the Centre to reduce the number of holidays and increase the working hours by at least 45 minutes.

Endorsing this line, the official said since the employees have been given revised wages, it was the right of the government to expect more out put from them. ``Since they were insisting on revision in wage structure as recommended by the pay commission, it is obligatory on their part to accept its recommendations on holidays and casual leaves,'' the official said.