CM to open Rajgir festival on December 28

BIHARSHARIF: Chief minister Nitish Kumar will inaugurate the three-day Rajgir Mahotsava on December 28, said Nalanda DM Palka Sahni during a review meeting of the preparations for the gala festival with officials, political leaders and eminent residents of Rajgir at the Tourists' Information Centre, Rajgir.

Urging officials and residents to make the prestigious event historic and memorable, the DM said the festival is being organized to attract more domestic and international tourists to Rajgir. She instructed officials to ensure that the beautification, cleanliness and other works are complete well before time and also urged the residents of Rajgir to help the district administration in keeping the town clean and free from any commotion during the mahotsava and thereafter so that the tourists visiting the place carry a positive picture of the people of the place.

Started as 'Rajgir Dance Festival' by the tourism department in association with Nalanda district administration in 1986, the festival added more colour with each passing year and it was later renamed as Rajgir Mahotsava. Events like Mahila Mahotsava in which rural women display their art and craft and present folk art forms, food festival, book fair, presentations by local school students, Vikas Mela, Gram Shree Mela, tonga race, wrestling etc will be the main attractions during the three-day mahotsava.

As a result of the Rajgir festival and improved sense of security, the flow of domestic and international tourists has kept increasing over the last few years. In the 2011-12 season, around a million tourists visited Rajgir and Nalanda. The process of selection of artists, who will perform this year at the mahotsava is in the final stage, with the names being announced by the State Tourism Development Corporation next week. Artists like Hema Malini, Sonal Mansingh, 
Sanjukta Panigrahi, Padmabhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj, Ghulam Ali Khan, Rajan Mishra and Sajan Mishra, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Anand Shankar, Anup Jalota, Alka Yagnik and many others have performed in the festival in the past.

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