Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi inaugurated the 21st Rajgir festival at Qila Maidan on Friday. The newly built international convention centre's inauguration was postponed as chief minister Nitish Kumar could not reach Rajgir from Delhi due to inclement weather.
Minister of art, culture and youth affairs, Sukhda Pandey, mines and geology minister Satyadeo Narayan Arya, vice-chancellor of Nalanda University Gopa Sabarwal, principal secretary, tourism, Deepak Kumar, MP from Nalanda, Kaushlendra Kumar and all the MLAs and MLCs of the district were also present.
The absence of chief minister on the occasion dampened the spirit of the revellers. The visitors were also disappointed as Sufi singer Zila Khan also failed to reach the venue. He was to perform on the opening day of the festival. People were looking for tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pintu who also could not reach here, despite the fact that his department is the chief sponsor of the festival along with district administration, Nalanda.
The Rajgir festival, which was earlier known as Rajgir Nritya (dance) Mahotsav, was started in 1986. The then chief minister, late Bindeshwari Dubey, had inaugurated the festival in Swarna Bhandar area on April 4. 1986 in the presence of the then Union tourism minister, late HKL Bhagat, the then state tourism minister Uma Pandey and the then state deputy minister of education, Surendra Kumar Tarun.
The tourism department-sponsored festival continued till 1989. It was not held for the subsequent four years before getting revived in 1994. Since then, it is an annual event on the calendar of Bihar Tourism. With a change of venue and the added colour and development of new tourist spots in the last few years, the festival has become a favourite event for domestic as well as foreign tourists.
Following chief minister Nitish Kumar's initiative and timely execution of programmes by DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal for the development of tourists spots, including Ghora Katora dam, Pandu Pokhar etc, and the renovation of various pilgrim centres in and around Rajgir, the festival is now organized at a more accessible Qila Maidan in the backdrop of Ratnagiri hills. Various sporting activities like tonga race, martial arts competitions, mehndi contest, mahila utsav, food plaza, gramshree mela etc have been introduced besides organizing performance by artists of national and international repute.
The efforts of the tourism department and the district administration to add something new every year have also paid off. This year, they have included horse race and a book fair for the tourists.
Noted artists like Hema Malini. Sonal Man Singh, Birju Maharaj, Bhupen Hazarika, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ghulam Ali, Talat Aziz, Ravindra Jain, Hari Haran, Shovana Narayan, Jaspinder Narula, Alka Yagnik, Meenakshi Seshadri, Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonali Rathore have already performed during Rajgir Mahotsav.
Minister of art, culture and youth affairs, Sukhda Pandey, mines and geology minister Satyadeo Narayan Arya, vice-chancellor of Nalanda University Gopa Sabarwal, principal secretary, tourism, Deepak Kumar, MP from Nalanda, Kaushlendra Kumar and all the MLAs and MLCs of the district were also present.
The absence of chief minister on the occasion dampened the spirit of the revellers. The visitors were also disappointed as Sufi singer Zila Khan also failed to reach the venue. He was to perform on the opening day of the festival. People were looking for tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pintu who also could not reach here, despite the fact that his department is the chief sponsor of the festival along with district administration, Nalanda.
The Rajgir festival, which was earlier known as Rajgir Nritya (dance) Mahotsav, was started in 1986. The then chief minister, late Bindeshwari Dubey, had inaugurated the festival in Swarna Bhandar area on April 4. 1986 in the presence of the then Union tourism minister, late HKL Bhagat, the then state tourism minister Uma Pandey and the then state deputy minister of education, Surendra Kumar Tarun.
The tourism department-sponsored festival continued till 1989. It was not held for the subsequent four years before getting revived in 1994. Since then, it is an annual event on the calendar of Bihar Tourism. With a change of venue and the added colour and development of new tourist spots in the last few years, the festival has become a favourite event for domestic as well as foreign tourists.
Following chief minister Nitish Kumar's initiative and timely execution of programmes by DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal for the development of tourists spots, including Ghora Katora dam, Pandu Pokhar etc, and the renovation of various pilgrim centres in and around Rajgir, the festival is now organized at a more accessible Qila Maidan in the backdrop of Ratnagiri hills. Various sporting activities like tonga race, martial arts competitions, mehndi contest, mahila utsav, food plaza, gramshree mela etc have been introduced besides organizing performance by artists of national and international repute.
The efforts of the tourism department and the district administration to add something new every year have also paid off. This year, they have included horse race and a book fair for the tourists.
Noted artists like Hema Malini. Sonal Man Singh, Birju Maharaj, Bhupen Hazarika, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ghulam Ali, Talat Aziz, Ravindra Jain, Hari Haran, Shovana Narayan, Jaspinder Narula, Alka Yagnik, Meenakshi Seshadri, Roop Kumar Rathod and Sonali Rathore have already performed during Rajgir Mahotsav.
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