Udaipur, Nov 05(UNI) The Tripurasundari Temple is gearing up for the Diwali Mela and artists from the state as well as around the country will perform at the Tripurasundari Dance and Music Festival on the occasion.
The Diwali Mela at the Tripureshwari Temple is a huge affair and the cultural programme organised here is a major attraction. Artists from neighbouring Bangladesh will also perform on the cultural dais. Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb will inaugurate the Mela, tourism minister Pranajit Singha Roy has said.
The temple and its surroundings are lit up lavishly and people are already thronging the place to relish the festive atmosphere. While the grand Diwali Mela will begin on November 6, the cultural fest has started yesterday.
The Sri Sri Mata Tripura Sundari Temple Trust committee, responsible for organising the programme, has said that the tribal and non-tribal artists from the state will get equal exposure and perform in front of the goddess from the same stage on the occasion of Diwali. "There will be a single stage for all cultural performances because it is the indication of unity that there is no distinction between tribal and non-tribal people of Tripura," the committee members said.
This year, Shyama Sangeet or the songs dedicated to goddess Kali will be performed by Somnath Chattopadhyay, an artist from Kolkata. Performers like Pandit Subal Biswas from Tripura, K V R Venkat Raman, Bankim Sinha, Boby Chakrabarty are going to perform at the fest. Devotees will also get the chance to be entertained by an artist from Tripura, who will play violin and Manipuri and Kuchipudi dancers from the state.
The state government is playing an active role in the preparations and maintaining order in and around the temple premises. The tourism minister took part in the preparatory meetings to ensure the administrative arrangements are in place and the event is completed peacefully.
All the officers have been ordered to do their duty to make the Diwali Mela, on November 6, at the Tripureswari temple, successful. The Mela continues into the next day and the two-day long affair is the biggest event of Tripura, organised on a large scale, in which pilgrims from outside the country also arrive.
While the government and the temple committee seem to be in perfect coordination, the renovation work and installation of the new ewer on top of Tripureswari Temple was done without the permission of the temple authorities.
The PWD, which did the renovation and the installation of the ewer, said that all the work was done under the instruction of Biplab Kumar Ghosh, the MLA of Matarbari Constituency. According to the rules of construction activity around the centrally protected monument/site, this type of activity is not legal.
UNI XC-AND