The Kerala government has announced January 14 as a holiday for the Pongal festival for six districts in the state, after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister wrote a letter to his counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday, January 13. Earlier, the Kerala government had stated that the holiday for Pongal would be on January 15. This was taken up by CM Stalin to Vijayan, seeking to declare a holiday on January 14 for six districts where there is a large Tamil-speaking population in Kerala.
"This is to bring to your kind and urgent attention the request to declare a local holiday for the Pongal festival in the six districts,where Tamil speaking people are living in large numbers. I am given to understand that during the last 12 years the Kerala govt has been declaring 14th January as the local holiday for Pongal festival, which is also the first day of the auspicious Tamil month "Thai", but January 15 is proposed to be a holiday this year”, CM Stalin had said in his letter.
He further sought CM Vijayan to continue with the practice of declaring a local holiday on January 14.
Soon after the letter, the holiday announced on January 15 in Kerala, was changed to January 14. The holiday is to be observed in six districts — Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Palakkad and Wayanad — where people from Tamil Nadu live in large numbers.