Former Member of State Legislative Council Vikramaditya Singh on Wednesday urged Center to declare birthday of Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh as state holiday.
The grandson of Hari Singh, Vikramaditya in a letter has urged Center to announce September 23 as state holiday on account of his grandfather’s birthday.
In a letter addressed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Vikramaditya has stated that there has been a long pending demand of Jammu people to announce last Dogra ruler’s birthday as state holiday.
“I am writing to strongly urge that you to take this forward to its logical conclusion and announce September 23rd as state holiday inn J&K. Honour to such a person would amount to honouring the sentiments of people of Jammu and Kashmir,” reads the letter.
Terming his grandfather Hari Singh as “visionary” Vikramaditya said he had brought remarkable reforms to uplift the state ofdowntrodden in society.
Castigating previous PDP-BJP coalition government, Vikramaditya said: “The government BJP-PDP) for three years had not taken any step taken in this direction”.
Last year in 2017 controversy had raked the state after BJP led an agitation over Hari Singh’s birthday to be declared as state holiday.
Vikramaditya’s letter comes days after his father and Congress leader Karan Singh had written to Center to rename Jammu airport after Hari Singh.