Bhagwant Mann lambasts MLA for opposing holiday on Mar 23

While replying to the issue raised by Congress MLA Amarinder Singh Raja Warring demanding to keep all the schools and colleges open on the martyrdom day instead of declaring a holiday, CM Mann said that the holiday has been declared as a befitting tribute to these legendary martyrs.

Clarifying the rationale behind declaring a state-level holiday on this day, he said that earlier this holiday was only declared locally within the district of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar to facilitate the people from nearby areas to pay tributes at the martyr's memorial in his ancestral village Khatkar Kalan.

"Now, our government has decided to declare a gazetted holiday on this day across the state to enable the maximum number of people from across the state to pay their glowing tributes to the great martyrs including students and teachers at both Khatkar Kalan and Hussainiwala, as these martyrs belong to the entire nation and thus can not be restricted to one place," he added.

Quipping at the spur of the moment, CM Mann asked Raja Warring to tell the birthday of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh which he failed to reply. Astonished over this, he asked Raja Warring to note down that the birthday of great martyr Bhagat Singh falls on September 28.

CM Mann, added that his government has already planned to commemorate Shaheed-e-Azam's birthday on a mega-scale by organizing a series of seminars, symposiums, declamation contests and several other events in schools, colleges besides other educational institutions across the state to apprise youngsters with the ideology and philosophy of the icon.