The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday scrapped off 15 public holidays marking birth and death anniversaries of eminent personalities. This decision was taken after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that schools in his state will no longer be closed on the occasion of birth and death anniversaries of great men and social leaders.
While most of the holidays were declared by previous Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) and often to appease certain sections of the society, cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma has said that 15 holidays have been done away with so that students can learn more about great personalities through special programmes that will be conducted for them.
According to Adityanath, the 220-day academic session has been reduced to only 120 days owing to such holidays. He added that if this tradition continues, there will be no day left for teaching in schools.
Uttar Pradesh had a total of 42 public holidays of which at least 17 were to mark birth anniversaries of eminent personalities. Previously, BSP and SP 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) and also the death anniversary of BR Ambedkar (December 6).
But now, the UP CM has cancelled the holidays scheduled on April 5, April 17 and May 9, and public holidays like Jan Nayak Karpori Thakur birth anniversary (January 24), Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti Ajmeri Gareeb Nawaz Urs on (April 14), Parashu Ram Jayanti (April 28), Jamat Ul Vida on June 23 (last Friday of Ramzan), Chhat Puja (October 26), Eid Milad Un Nabi (December 2) and Chaudhary Charan Singh Jayanti (December 23).
Sharma has said that revised list of holidays will be made available soon.
