In an apparent move to woo Biharis ahead of 2017 assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party Government has declared a holiday on November 17 on occasion of Chhat Puja. Government spokesman said in a statement issued here on Monday that the offices and all educational institutions will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Chhatt. It further said that those officers that work for five days a week will remain closed on Tuesday but will open on Saturday in lieu of Chhatt holiday.
The banks and treasury, however, will remain open. After the decision, the number of official holidays in Uttar Pradesh has gone up to 40.
The Akhilesh Government had earlier declared a holiday on December 6, the death anniversary of Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Government had earlier declared holidays on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar (April 17), Maharishi Kashyap and Maharshi Nishadraj Jayanti (April 5) Hazrat Ajmeri Garib Nawaj Urs (April 26) and Maharana Pratap on May 5.
The SP government has also declared June 24 as a public holiday in UP to mark socialist leader Karpoori Thakur’s birth anniversary. Thakur, former Chief Minister of Bihar, was one of the socialist leaders close to Jaya Prakash Narayan who spearheaded the movement for ‘Total Revolution’ as well as protests against the Emergency. The state government had last month declared public holiday on October 31, the birth anniversaries of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and Acharya Narendra Dev. In Mulayam Singh’s last tenure the then government had slashed the list of public holidays to 24. However, successive state governments altered the list of holidays to pursue their political agenda by adding or deleting death and birth anniversaries of ideologues of political parties as per their convenience and with an eye on vote bank.
In 2008, the Mayawati government had declared birth and death anniversary of party founder Kanshiram on March 15 and October 9 as public holidays. However, when the SP returned to power in 2012, these holidays were removed from the list.