PANAJI
The Goa Forward President Vijai Sardesai on Monday submitted a written representation to Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel demanding Ram Navami on March 30 to be declared as a public holiday.
A bulletin issued by the Goa Legislative Assembly last week stated that the session will have four sittings on March 27, 28, 29 and 31; excluding March 30 being Ram Navami.
“You must be well aware that this year Ram Navami falls on the 30th of this month, and is declared a Restricted Holiday. Given the reverence and devotion Lord Rama is held by the Hindus, and the fervour in which celebrations and rituals are observed on that day, I feel that successive governments have not accorded the day of his birth the respect and significance that it merits,” reads Sardesai’s letter to the CS.
“It would be felicitous and appropriate to declare the day that Rama Navami falls on, as a Public Holiday instead of a Restricted Holiday,” he added.
