KARACHI: The Bhara­tiya Janata Party-led government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) has decided to scrap more than a dozen public holidays, including those for Eid Milad-un-Nabi and Jumatul Wida, according to BBC Urdu.

The announcement was made on UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s Twitter account on Tuesday.

In addition to the two holidays mentioned, holidays to celebrate the birth of Khawaja Moinuddin Chi­shti, Chandar Shekhar and Chaudhry Charan Singh have also been done away with.

Currently, there are 42 public holidays in UP, out of which 17 mark the birthdays of notable personalities.

“On the birthdays of great personalities, educational institutes should organise assemblies of at least an hour... informing students of their personality, achievements and motivational teachings,” the chief minister’s office declared in a series of tweets.

Mr Adityanath had earlier hinted at abolishing holidays meant for celebrating the birthdays of famous personalities. “If the purpose of these holidays is to remember the great personalities and to motivate people, then why don’t we open schools for two hours on such occasions and inform the kids who these great people are?” he asked while speaking at a recent event held to celebrate birthday of the architect of the Indian constitution.

Many of the holidays cancelled by the current UP government was introduced by its previous government, which was led by Akhilesh Yadav.

The revised list of holidays would be available soon, said the state government.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2017