Delhi Confidential: Holi day not holiday for Jitendra Singh

With six ministries under his belt, and a host of political commitments to take care of, Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh will work over the next two days.

Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

Not everyone will celebrate Holi with the usual festivities. With six ministries under his belt, and a host of political commitments to take care of, Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh will work over the next two days.

Singh has been doing the rounds of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) labs as part of the Council’s “one lab, one week’’ campaign, under which each of the 37 labs under CSIR is being given the opportunity to showcase their work.

While some states and UTs — Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and J&K, among others — celebrate Holi on Tuesday, others such as Delhi will have a holiday on Wednesday. Some states in South India, meanwhile, have very little celebration on Holi. So when Singh asked CSIR to choose a day for his visit, CSIR-IICT (Indian Institute of Chemical Technology) chose March 7 (Tuesday), saying that Hyderabad barely celebrates Holi.

Singh, whose response was that he does not celebrate a holiday on Holi day, will be in Hyderabad working on the two-day festival break.

Taking stock: Several Union ministers and Delhi MPs are planning to visit Jan Aushadi Kendras, or shops selling generic medicines, on Tuesday morning, as the government marks Jan Aushadi Diwas on March 7.

Ministers Hardeep Puri, Piyush Goyal, Kiren Rijiju, L Murugan and Bhupender Yadav, and MPs Parvesh Sahib Singh and Harsh Vardhan, will visit different shops in the Capital.

Tuesday’s activities will be the culmination of the week-long celebrations of Jan Aushadi Diwas.

Story continues below this ad

United colours: More than a hundred officials from foreign missions and embassies played Holi and danced to traditional dhol beats as they participated in Holi Mahotsav, organised by MoS for External Affairs and Culture, Meenakshi Lekhi, on Monday. Besides a variety of dishes made using millets, the special all-vegetarian menu had Banarasi tamatar chaat and thandai.