TITA wants Telangana Festivals in ‘2014 Holiday List’

Hyderabad, Jan 3 : The Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) on Friday demanded that the IT companies add Telangana Festivals Bathukamma and Bonalu in their ‘List of Holidays’ for the Calendar year 2014.

The IT companies releases the list of holidays every year in the first week of January. Some of the small size IT companies already listed Bathukamma and Bonalu. “All the IT companies in Hyderabad should add Telangana Festivals in their 2014 list of Holidays and should be considered as Mandatory Regional Holidays,” TITA President Sundeep Kumar Makthala said.

“Telangana is an unwanted sibling for the Andhra region people of Andhra Pradesh. Andhra rulers have always discriminated Telangana people, its culture and its way of life. Telangana history is nowhere to be found in text books, Telangana festivals are low class affairs for them. TITA demands that prominence should be given to the festival which reflects the culture and traditions of the Telangana region,” said Makthala.

“Bathukamma, a festival of life, is one of the few festivals in the world that are celebrated just by women. This is one of the most important festivals of Telangana. Unfortunately, government of Andhra Pradesh does not recognize this as a State festival. This festival requires elaborate preparations, for which decent amount of time is needed. As this is not a public holiday, working women have been staying away from celebrating it. If nothing is done, Bathukamma, which has been celebrated for hundreds of years, may no longer be celebrated,” said Bhavani Reddy Marikanti, TITA Women’s Wing President. INN