No order declaring I-Day, Oct 2, Jan 26 as national festivals

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/no-order-declaring-iday-oct-2-jan-26-as-national-festivals/988281/

No order declaring I-Day, Oct 2, Jan 26 as national festivals

Agencies : Lucknow, Tue Aug 14 2012, 15:48 hrs

An application under the Right to Information has revealed that there
is no formal order to declare Republic Day, Independence Day and birth
anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 as national festivals.

In April this year, 10-year-old Aishwarya Parashar, a class VI student
of CMS School, sent an application to the Prime Minister's Office
seeking a certified copy of the orders through which August 15,
January 26 and October 2 have been declared as national festival.

The PMO forwarded the application to the Union Home Ministry, which in
its reply on May 17, said such an order was never issued.

The applicant made a second appeal on May 28 stating that she had read
in textbooks that Republic Day, Independence Day and October 2 were
national holidays and there might be some mistake in providing the
information.

The second appeal was then forwarded to Department of Personnel and
Training and was finally forwarded to the National Archives that if
any document pertaining to declaration of national holiday existed it
should be provided to the applicant.

In a reply sent on July 23, Assistant Director of Archives Jayaprabha
Ravindran said as per preliminary search some files related to
declaration of January 26, August 15 and October 2 as public holidays
were available.

However, notification declaring these days as public holidays required
extensive search among the published material in the custody of the
National Archives of India.

The applicant may visit the archives for a detailed research among the
publication and cull out relevant information," the Assistant Director
said.

The applicant has now sent a petition to President Pranab Mukherjee
and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that she had been informed by the
National Archives that though some files existed, but no government
order was found.

Stating that she was deeply pained, Aishwarya has requested the
President and PM to get an official order issued declaring August 15,
October 2 and January 26 as national festivals