Five-day Jatra fest gets underway in Odisha’s Sundargarh

Reported by Malay  Ray
Sundargarh, Jan 28:

The five day long Jatra-2015, the annual district level cultural festival kicked off in Sundargarh town on wetsern Odisha on Tuesday night. The mega festival will continue till January 31.

‘Jatra’ is organised by District Culture Council, Sundargarh at Sunndargarh every year.

Jatra-2015 was inaugurated by Dilip Tirkey, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha at Bhabhani Bhawan Ground, Sundargarh.

After the inauguration of the festival, an art exhibition  and a painting workshop were also inaugurated at the Gymnasium hall. Dance troupes from different parts of Odisha and one from Sikkim performed later in the night. .

Subrat Tarai, MLA, Raghunathpalli, Jogesh Kumar Singh, MLA, Sundargarh, Prafulla Majhi, MLA, Talsara,  Firdus Topno, President, District Council, Sundargarh and Benudhar Tandia, Chairman, Sundargarh Municipality were present in this occasion as Guests of Honour.

Sundargarh Collector Bhupinder Singh Punia gave welcome address and Sundargarh Addl.district Magistrate Rabindra Nath Mishra gave vote of thanks.

There are 198 stalls at the festival with products like handicraft items, wood craft of Kalahandi. A number of self help groups (SHGs) are displaying their products in different stalls and food items from tweleve other states are also available at the stalls. Some mouth watering Odia delicacies are on offer at the food stalls.

A book fair is also organised for book lovers as part of the festival. All the stalls will remain open from 10 am to 10 pm from Wednesday to Saturday. In these four days, dance items will be performed by various dance troupes from all parts of the country from 6 pm in the evening.

“We organise this festival for the enjoyment of people of Sundargarh district and also for development of culture.” Said A Sethi, District Culture Officer, Sundargarh.