Jangalmahal Utsav to kick off today

Kolkata: Partha Chatterjee, the state Education and Parliamentary Affairs minister, will inaugurate the eight-day-long Jangalmahal Utsav at Jhargram on Thursday.

State Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari will be the special guest. Shantiram Mahato, minister for Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs department and Sukumar Hansda, Deputy Speaker, will be present at the inaugural function. The fair was started by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2013 to win the confidence of the people of Jangalmahal who had been under constant threats by the Maoists.

The Mela will be held at the Kumudmumari Institution from January 24 to 31.

Forty two state government departments will be put up at the fair to create awareness among the people. State government officials will be there to interact with the masses and iron out their problems. It may be mentioned that in the administrative review meetings held recently, the Chief Minister had asked the district officials to take initiative to make people aware about the various projects introduced by the state government.

In addition to these stalls, four districts of Jangalmahal, namely Jhargram, Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura will put up stalls to highlight the activities that are going on in the districts.

Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs department will put up a stall to showcase the projects that have been taken up in the area.

Cultural competitions have been continuing in 24 blocks of Jangalmahal and the award winners of the district-level contests will take part in the cultural shows. There are seven districts in Jangalmahal and each district has been allotted a day to showcase their cultural activities. There will be 100 stalls where artisans will put up various products that include wooden dolls, various room decoration items made of dokra. Forty groups comprising folk artistes from 24 blocks will be given musical instruments including dhama, madal and dhol.

After coming to power in 2011, Banerjee started visiting Jangalmahal on a regular basis to win the confidence of people. The Maoists had established a reign of terror in the area. The students could not go to school and tourism was badly hit. The folk culture had nearly become extinct.

To improve communication, several bridges had been constructed. To help the folk artistes nearly 2 lakh performers from all over the state are given monthly stipends and are invited to take part in programmes hosted by various state government departments. Tourism is coming up in a very big way in Jangalmahal.