As an additional gift to participants of this year's West Bengal State Student-Youth Festival, the Youth Affairs and Sports department will take all 2,500 of them to Eco Park for a trip.
Aroop Biswas, the state Youth Affairs and Sports minister inaugurated the three-day long festival at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Tuesday. Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, the minister of state of the department, MLA Sujit Bose, Mayor of Howrah Municipal Corporation Dr Rathin Chakraborty and Krishna Chakraborty, chairperson of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation were present in the inaugural ceremony of the festival that will continue for the next three days.
Biswas said: "Around 5 lakh people from different parts of the state participated in the cultural competitions in the West Bengal State Student-Youth Festival. Around 2,500 were selected to participate in the three-day long programme."
In a bid to encourage the participants, who came from different parts of the state, Biswas urged the principal secretary of Youth Affairs and Sports to make arrangement to take all the 2,500 participants to Eco Park, setting up of which was a dream project of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The participants were overwhelmed listening to the announcement of the minister. Expressing his hope that the same participants will become world famous in future, Biswas assured all help to them by his department. "We will help the participants who stands first, second and third in West Bengal State Student-Youth Festival by promoting them in National level," said Biswas. This year, around 121 participants from each district were selected through competitions in grass-root level to participate in the three-day-long festival initiated on Tuesday.
Every year, the festival takes place at Yuva Bharati Krirangan. This year, the programme's venue has been shifted to Netaji Indoor Stadium as the preparation of Under 17-Football World Cup is going on in Yuva Bharati Krirangan.
But, the accommodation arrangements for the participants have been made in Yuva Bharati Krirangan. After the change of guard in the state, the state Youth Affairs and Sports department created world class accommodation facility in Yuva Bharati Krirangan besides renovating other parts of the stadium.
The participants were given transportation from Yuva Bharati Krirangan to Netaji Indoor Stadium.