Officials chided for taking too many days off for Lunar New Year

Long holidays can sometimes be too much of a good thing – as officials from Gansu and Hunan provinces are now learning.

Government workers and party committee members from Gansu’s Shuichuanzhen township in Baiyin district are coming under fire for taking more than a month off for Spring Festival, the People’s Daily newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the report, a large number of the town’s government officials and cadres - including the party secretary himself - has been on leave since mid-January and is not expected to be back at their desks until March 6. The lengthy 40-day break for the Lunar New Year supposedly follows state regulations.

"[Officials] need a break from the newspaper reading, online chatting and tea drinking they do at the office," one blogger joked on the Twitter-like site, Sina Weibo.

"These idlers should be given a permanent holiday," posted another.

Reporters visiting the town’s party headquarters last week reported seeing a “quiet and sparsely filled” parking lot with “no one manning the doors to the building”.

In light of the report, party committee members and government officials convened an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss “immediate rectification of the problems”.

The town’s Commission for Discipline Inspection will also launch an inspection into the case.

Meanwhile, officials from Hunan province’s Loudi city were also criticised for extending what was supposed to be a statutory seven-day holiday, to 10 days, according to the Beijing News on Tuesday.