Exactly Bangla calendar date like West Bengal follows.
You are asking BD people to follow west Bengal calender blindly, but you did not cite any reasons why should we do that. Please read the partial editorial of the New Age to understand the depth of the matter.
Todays Bangla and Indian calendar
According to Sudhir Kumar Chattopadhay [the weekly Desh, Calcutta, November 16, 1996], the solar and luni-solar calendars in India are more than 1,600 years old). These calendars were sidereal and had 1st Baishakh (April 14) as the first day of the year. But these calendars had different lengths of months in them. Even a same calendar had different lengths of months at different places.
After independence, the Indian government in November 1952 appointed Dr Meghnad Saha to head a committee to find a uniform calendar for the whole of the country. The Saha Commitee recommended that a tropical calendar in place of the traditional sidereal calendar be introduced; the starting month of the year be Chaitra, instead of Baishakh; the starting day of Chaitra be delayed for 6/7 days (tropical year); and Shakabda be named the national calendar.
In East Pakistan, a committee headed by Dr M Shahidullah met in February 1966, to reform the dates of the Bangla calendar. The Shahidullah committee recommended that Bangla be the national calendar since adopted by the Mughals; years be counted since its origin with Hijri, present year 1373 Bangla, the months Baishakh to Vadra be of 31 days, others of 30 days; and one extra day for Chaitra in leap years.
The Saha Committee recommendations, though officially accepted by the government of India, did not get popularity as it went against their tradition. Following this, the Indian government, under a committee set up in 1986, reviewed the status of the Saha Committee report and recommended its necessary modifications to attain the objectives of a national calendar [ibid]. According to Chattopaddhay, there exists a strong opinion in India among astrologers and panchang pundits to fix the starting date of the national calendar on April 14, the date when sun reaches the first point of sidereal Aries.
In Bangladesh, the government upheld (1996) the lengths of months recommended by the Shahidullah committee but fixed the starting day of the Bangla year on April 14. It has also decided on an extra day in Phalgun, if it falls on a Christian leap year.
M Inamul Haque is chairman of the Institute of Water and Environment.
minamul@gmail.com.
. A complete stupid decision by Ershad administration.
