Srinagar: Peoples’ Conference chief Sajad Lone on Saturday urged the Jammu and Kashmir government to grant special casual leave to Muslim employees in the Union Territory on the occasion of Eid Milad-un-Nabi, the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad. While the festival falls on Saturday according to the Islamic calendar, the official holiday was observed on Friday, as per the holiday calendar issued by the Lieutenant Governor’s administration at the start of the year, and the administration has not rescheduled it.
Lone, in a post on X, said, “It is a request to the government to grant special casual leave for Muslim employees across J&K today, considering the mismatch between the declared holiday and the actual festival date. This is a routine practice in the case of restricted holidays.”
On Friday, the Omar Abdullah-led government in Jammu and Kashmir criticised Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s administration for not aligning the holiday for Eid Milad-un-Nabi with the Islamic calendar despite repeated requests. Chief Minister Abdullah described the “deliberate” decision by the unelected government not to shift the holiday as “inconsiderate and designed to hurt the sentiments of the people.”
