Chandigarh, March 22: Training guns at the Congress party on the third day of the first session of 16th Punjab Vidhan Sabha, leader of the House and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday declared holiday on March 23, the martyrdom day of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, as a tribute to the great martyrs.
While replying to the issue raised by the Congress MLA from Gidderbaha Amarinder Singh Raja Warring demanding to keep all the schools and colleges open on the aforesaid martyrdom day instead of declaring a holiday, Bhagwant 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, Bhagwant Mann 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 so as 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’t be restricted to one place, added Bhagwant Mann.
Quipping at the spur of moment, the leader of House Bhagwant Mann asked Raja Warring to tell the birthday of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh which he failed to reply. Astonished over this, Bhagwant Mann asked him (Raja Warring) to note down that the birthday of great martyr Bhagat Singh falls on September 28. Bhagwant Mann, however, said that his government has already planned to commemorate this day 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 our youngsters with the ideology and philosophy of youth’s icon.
