Uttar Pradesh cancels 15 public holidays, including Prophet's birthday

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government yesterday cancelled 15 public holidays that mark the birth or death anniversary of eminent personalities.

Most of the holidays had been declared by the previous Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) governments, apparently to keep certain sections of the society in good humour, often with an eye on the vote bank.

However, the state Cabinet at its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath decided to cancel 15 such public holidays in educational institutions. "Instead, students in schools and colleges will now be taught about the great personalities on these days," Cabinet minister Shrikant Sharma said.

An official release later clarified that government employees were free to avail restricted holidays on these days.
Adityanath had in his address on the occasion of Dr BR Ambedkar's 126th birth anniversary here expressed concern over the shrinking academic session. "There should be no holidays in schools on birth anniversaries of great personalities. Instead, a special two-hour programme should be held to teach students about them. The 220-day academic session has been reduced to only 120 days due to such holidays and if this tradition continues, there will be no day left for teaching in schools," he had said. But cancelling the holiday on Milad un-Nabi (Prophet Mohammad's birthday) has not been taken well by some Muslims.

Public holidays that have been scrapped include Jan Nayak Karpori Thakur birth anniversary (Jan 24), Maharshi Kashyap and Maharaj Guha birth anniversary (Apr 5), Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti Ajmeri Gareeb Nawaz Urs on (Apr 14), Parashuram Jayanti (Apr 28), Maharana Pratap Jayanti (May 9), Jamat Ul Vida on June 23 (last Friday of Ramzan) etc.