The 7th North East Youth Festival was formally inaugurated by State Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Tinku Roy on Monday. The inaugural program was attended by minister Suklacharan Noatia, chief whip of the state assembly Kalyani Saha Roy, special guest secretary of youth affairs and sports department Dr. Pradip Kumar Chakraborty, Olympian Padmashree Dipa Karmakar and others. The program was presided over by the director of the department Satyabrata Nath.
The central theme of the Festival is ‘Unlocking the potential of of the Yuva Shakti (power of the youth) in North East India’ and ‘Amar Bharat Vikshit Bharat’.
The Festival will continue for three more days and the closing along with the award ceremony will be held on February 29.
According to the report provided by the statisticians of the tournament, a total of 765 people from the host state, Tripura and other states are participating in the seventh North East Youth Festival. The highest number of participants is from the host state – 249. Among them, 32 are men and 30 are women. Besides, 104 men and 30 women are participating in the competition as representatives of Nehru Yuva Kendra, and 29 young men and 34 young women from NSS.
Besides, 120 people from Meghalaya, 106 from Arunachal Pradesh, 87 from Nagaland, 84 from Mizoram, 58 from Assam, 54 from Sikkim and 7 from Manipur are participating.
As part of the inauguration, a rally started in front of Rabindra Bhavan at 2 pm and reached Urban Haat in Purbasha in Agartala today. The formal inauguration ceremony started there at 3 pm. The food and handicrafts stalls were also formally inaugurated today. Folk dance performances and local cultural programs followed this.
On Tuesday, folk music, painting, photography and clay modelling, folk dance, NSS and Nehru Yuva Kendra’s Su-bichar program, guitar playing, martial arts show, one-act play competition and folk dance and local cultural program.
On February 28, a kayaking and trekking tour will be organized for the participating youth to Sepahijala Neermahal and Purba Chandigar in Melaghar. In the afternoon, after returning to the Town Hall, the second round of the one-act play competition will be held, followed by a rock band competition at Nazrul Kala Kendra and folk dance and local cultural programs at Purbasha Complex.
On February 29, the participants will visit tourist spots like Ujjayanta Palace and Heritage Park. The closing ceremony will start at 4:30 pm at Swami Vivekananda Maidan. On that day, the program will start with the award ceremony followed by a colorful cultural program.