Sambalpur: Government bow down to the demands of the people, banks and financial institutions will remain closed in Nuakhai

Sambalpur: The state government has partially bowed down to the strong demands of the people of Western Odisha. An unprecedented campaign was started this year demanding that the state government should give a 3-day holiday for Nuakhai and keep central institutions and court offices closed on Nuakhai across the state. The demand started from people and spread to organizations, media, social media and public representatives. In Western Odisha, everyone in one voice demanded a 3-day official holiday even in Nuakhai. Every person of West Odisha living in the state and outside the state joined in this demand. Seeing the strong voice of the people, the representatives of the people, regardless of the party opinion, were forced to raise this demand to the government. This demand also put a lot of pressure on the government officials. The District Collectors of various districts, including the Northern and Southern Revenue Commissioners, wrote letters to the government to consider this. The state government has finally bowed down to the strong demands of the people.
Earlier, Nuakhai day was a complete holiday by the state government. But banks and central financial institutions remained open. This time, through a notification from the state government, banks and financial institutions across the state will be closed on Nuakhai day. However, no decision has been taken on this while central institutions and judicial offices, courts and offices are open outside Western Odisha. Similarly, since Ganesh Puja is a holiday on the day before Nuakhai and state holiday is on Nuakhai, it was claimed that if the holiday is declared on the next day, then there will be 3 full days of vacation. Although the state government has not declared this third day as a statewide holiday, most of the districts of Western Odisha have declared it as a local holiday for this year. The government was requested by both North and South RDCs to sanction this day as a local holiday. In this series, Kalahandi and Nuapada districts under the Southern Revenue Commissioners have declared a local holiday on the next day, i.e. 2nd. Since half of the people in Kalahandi eat new food on 5th , the next day i.e. the 6th has also been declared as a local holiday. In the same way, holiday has been announced in Balangir, Sonpur, Bargarh, Sambalpur and Jharsuguda districts under Northern Revenue Commissioners.

Apart from this, out of the three sub-districts of Sundargarh district, only Sundargarh Sadar sub-district has declared a holiday on the next day. However, no holidays have been declared in Deogarh district, Rourkela and sub-districts of Sundargarh district and Etshmalli sub-district of Angul district which is considered part of Western Odisha. Similarly, the residents of Boudh district under the Southern RDC did not get a day off. However, as the government has declared this day as a holiday at the local level, it is being discussed in the local halls that it will be an additional holiday or it will be replaced with the previously scheduled local holiday. Various organizations of Western Odisha have said that in the coming years Nuakhai and the next day will be announced as a statewide holiday and it will be strongly demanded to be included in the official calendar.