LUCKNOW – The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led government in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has announced an end to holidays for Eid Milad-un-Nabi, Jummat-ul-Wida, and 15 other public holidays.
“The cabinet has cancelled 15 public holidays marking the anniversaries of great personalities. Students will now be taught on these days about these figures through various programmes,” UP minister Shrikant Sharma said after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
His statement came a day after an announcement was made on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s Twitter account on Tuesday.
In addition to the aforementioned holidays, days off to celebrate the birth of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, Chandar Shekhar, and Chaudhry Charan Singh have also been ended, the Hindustan Times reported.
“On the birthdays of great personalities, educational institutes should organize assemblies of at least an hour long informing students of their personality, achievements and motivational teachings,” the Chief Minister’s office declared in a series of tweets.
Currently, there are 42 public holidays in UP, out of which 17 celebrate the birthdays of notable personalities.
The previous Samajwadi Party government had declared holidays on the birth anniversaries of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar (April 17), Maharishi Kashyap and Maharshi Nishadraj Jayanti (April 5), Hazrat Ajmeri Garib Nawaj Urs (April 26), Maharana Pratap Jayanti (May 9) besides on the death anniversary of Ambedkar (December 6).
Sharma said the revised list of holidays will soon be made available.
