No holidays on 'Jayantis' in Karnataka? CM plans to go the Yogi way
- State has 22 holidays officially declared by the government
- Of which five are dedicated to mark the birth and death anniversaries of famous persoanlities
- If CM goes ahead with his plan, the impact is directly on the government employees
FollowAfter Uttar Pradesh government cancelled public holidays of birth and death anniversaries of eminent personalities, the state government may adopt the same policy here too. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hinted at such a possibility at the Bhageeratha here on Tuesday.
“Such holidays do not help anyone but government employees, who enjoy a good number of holidays, already,” said Siddaramaiah adding that the government is considering to follow UP-government model in this regard.
As per the State government's general holiday list for 2017 - there are five such holidays to mark the birth and death anniversaries of famous personalities among the 22 holidays. They include - Ambedkar Jayanti (April 14), Basava jayanti (April 29), Gandhi jayanti (October 20), Maharshi Valmiki Jayanti (October 5) and Kanakadasa Jayanti (November 6). Besides, there are festival holidays and common holidays like Independence Day, Republic Day among others.
If these 22 holidays are added to 53 Sundays this year, it remains just 290 working days of 365 days. The number may go down further considering second Saturdays and local-specific festivals like Varamahalakshmi festival.
The State government had planned for Bengaluru founder 'Nadaprabhu' Kempegowda's birth anniversary on April 17, 2017. This was planned to woo the dominant Vokkaliga community. However, due to lack of consensus among the exact date of birth of Kempegowda among the historians, the government kept its plan on hold.
Also, the State government has been aggressively pitching in for Tipu Jayanti on November 10 keeping minority votes in mind. But the government's plan was severely criticised for being communal by the Opposition parties and a PIL was also filed against it in the court. It may be recalled here that the court had rapped up the state government asking "what's the use of holding Tipu Jayanti” and also questioning the theory that Tipu was a Freedom Fighter. The state government decided to go ahead with the 266th birth anniversary of Tipu recently which witnessed communal clashes in Madikeri. So far, the government has not yet decided on it.
