Govt announces March 19 as holiday for 'Ugadi'

Hyderabad, Mar 15 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Minister for Finance and Legislative Affairs K Rosaiah today informed the Assembly that the government had decided to declare holiday for 'Ugadi' (Telugu New Year's Day) on March 19, 2007 instead of March 20 as decided earlier.

Announcing this in the House, he said normally the government consulted the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) to decide religious holidays and March 20 was declared holiday as per TTD's advise.

But following criticism from several quarters that "Ugadi" was not to be observed on March 20, but on 19, the government has directed the Endowments Commissioner to call a meeting of Vedic scholars to decided on the matter.

The meeting, in which 33 scholars and seers from the Kanchi Math attended, opined that "Ugadi" should be observed on March 20, while six diferred with them.

Based on the majority, the government had decided to change the Ugadi holiday and also reschedule the examination date.

TRS MLA Nayani Narasimha Reddy said according to an astrologer, whom his party consulted observing "Ugadi" on March 19 would be bad for the state as solar eclipse falls on the same day.

He said people of Telangana would observe "Ugadi" only on March 20.

UNI