Hyderabad: Does any government declare optional holiday on Sunday which is a compulsory holiday in government offices? Yes, the Andhra Pradesh government has announced optional holidays on two Sundays.

Orders were issued on Friday. In the order (GO RT No. 1328) the Andhra Pradesh government declared optional holidays on May 3 (Sunday) and May 17 (Sunday).

The order said, “The government after careful consideration had decided to change the optional holiday from 02.05.2015 (Saturday) to 03.05.2015 (Sunday) on the occasion of the birthday of Hazrath Ali and optional holiday on 16.05.2015 (Saturday) to 17.05.2015 (Sunday) on the occasion of Shab-e-Meraj as per moon sighting”.

A senior IAS officer said that in his 30 years of service he had never seen such orders. He wondered how the government could declare optional holiday on Sunday.

Earlier the government had issued orders on December 5, 2014, declaring May 2 and 16 (both Saturdays) as optional holidays, but the Andhra Pradesh State Wakf Board chief executive officer asked the government to change optional holidays to May 3 and May 17 (both Sundays) instead of May 2 and May 16 as per moon sighting.

According to that state government issued orders changing the optional holidays.