Mamata wants May 8 to be national holiday

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she will demand that May 8 be declared a national holiday to mark the 150th birthday of Rabindranath Tagore.

"I will demand from the Centre to announce a national holiday on the occasion of 150th birthday of Rabindranath Tagore. I was able to get the Centre's nod for national holiday on ocassion of Gurudev's 125th birthday," she said. Sh was announcing state-wide 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda, Prafulla Chandra Ray and Dwijendra Lal Ray besides Tagore after a meeting with artists and ministers.

Banerjee said this year Rabindra Jayanti celebrations would be held for a week at the block level between 2 pm to 10 pm to allow more people to participate.

In January next year, an international-level event will be organised by the state and a replica of Swami Vivekenanda's statue at Chicago would be installed in the city, besides other programmes on the occasion of his birthday which falls in that month.