‘Fewer holidays on birth, death anniversaries of eminent people’
NEW DELHI: Taking cue from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday directed the Chief Secretary to scrap public holidays observed to mark the birth or death anniversary of eminent personalities.
“The Delhi government will cancel holidays on birth or death anniversary of eminent personalities. In this regard, I have issued instruction to the chief secretary,” Sisodia tweeted.
In his tweet, Sisodia said that states should always be ready to learn from the decisions of other states.
He further tweeted that the decision of implementing mohalla clinics and doing away with red beacons on VIP vehicles had received national support and that has proved to be encouraging for the Delhi government.
The Delhi government will on Monday prepare the list of holidays given for birth and death anniversaries of eminent personalities to be cancelled, after which approval will be sought from Lieutenant Governor for issuing a notification in this regard.
In his series of tweets announcing the decision, Sisodia also lauded Yogi Adityanath for canceling 15 public holidays given on birth or death anniversaries of eminent personalities.” the Uttar Pradesh government has taken a good initiative in this matter. We should always be ready to learn from other states,” he said.
On April 25, the Uttar Pradesh cabinet had decided to cancel 15 public holidays in educational institutions.
“Instead, students in schools and colleges would now be taught about the great personalities on these days,” the UP government had stated.
The holidays cancelled by the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government include the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad, which is widely celebrated across the country as Milad-un-nabi.
“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,” Adityanath had said.
The UP Chief Minister had said that the 220-day academic session was reduced to only 120 days due to such holidays and there would be no days left for teaching in schools if the practice continued.
For the Delhi government, the move is seen as Aam Aadmi Party’s attempt to recalibrate its functioning and be seen as an accommodative dispensation rather than confrontational.
Though the decision would not touch the 18 scheduled holidays, the list of 34 restricted holidays for 2017 could see a pruning.
The majority of the soonto-be cancelled leave days come under restricted holidays, such as Guru Govind Singh birthday (January 5), Guru Ravidas birthday (February 10), Chhatrapati Shivaji Jayanti (February 19), Swami Dayanand Jayanti (February 21), Hazarat Ali’s birthday (April 11) and Guru Tegh Bahadur’s birth anniversary (November 24).
The Delhi government has, in the recent past, introduced various schemes and plans to reduce drop-out rates truancy and increase enrolment.