Hyderabad: The information technology sector seems to be warming up to the Telangana sentiment, albeit in a different way.

Several IT companies have added the Bonalu and Bathukamma festivals to their list of holidays for 2014 in addition to the existing ones.

Interestingly, Bonalu is not even on the list of optional holidays declared by the government.

However, industry insiders say it varies from company to company and there is no fixed holiday list common to all companies.

Some smaller IT companies have added Bonalu to their list of holidays, but the larger companies are yet to make a move in this direction.

Companies have a fixed list of national holidays along with regional holidays specific to a particular state. They also have a list of floating holidays, which are very specific and they let employees choose from two or three from a list of about five or more.

Smaller IT companies like Genesis and Citadel have apparently added Bonalu and Bathukamma to their holiday lists.

Bipin Pendyala, secretary, IT and ITeS Industry Association of AP (ITsAP) said holidays were not common to all companies.

“All companies don’t have a common list of holidays apart from the national holidays. So it depends from company to company,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Telangana IT Association said these festivals were central to the Telangana region and should be included in the companies’ lists.

Sandeep Kumar Makthala, founder and president, Telangana IT Association (TITA), said, “These are major festivals in the Telangana region so there is no reason why they shouldn’t be declared as holidays. We want them to be mandatorily declared holidays by companies.”