Community leader raises hopes for Sarawak to declare Deepavali as public holiday

Festival of lights: Fatimah along with Lucy and her family lights the 'kuthuvilakku' at Lucy's residence in Kuching here.

KUCHING: Indian community leader Kapitan Lucy Lingam is always enthusiastic about holding an open house to celebrate Deepavali, but she certainly does not looking forward to receiving complaints every year about some schools refusing to allow Hindu students time off to celebrate the festival.

This, she admits, is the hard reality faced by the Indians in Sarawak where Deepavali is not an official public holiday.