New Delhi: The government will celebrate Ganga Utsav next month and its focus will be on encouraging stakeholder engagement and public participation towards rejuvenation of the Ganga river, a senior official said on Monday.
The festival will promote and escalate the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rejuvenate rivers by building a connection with traditions that are associated with rivers for centuries, he said.
“Keeping this in consideration, the activities, designed for the central and state levels, from November 1 to November 3 will be organised in both physical and virtual mode,” the official in the National Mission for Clean Ganga said.
He said that the central level event will be held in the presence of Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy and Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahalad Singh Patel, among others.
“At the central level, the activities planned include cultural activities comprising music, dance and poetry performances by renowned artists,” the official said.
Listing out the activities, he said, these include ‘kahani junction’ for storytelling by famous personalities, the Ganga dialogue, preparing story maps on community-based efforts, blog writing, ‘kachre se kanchan’ utilisation of plastic waste and converting the same into bio-diversity models for Gangetic dolphins and turtles, and nukkad nataks.
The event will also comprise launch of the promo of the movie ‘Ganga: River from Skies’ by NAT GEO, release of Chacha Chaudhary and Ganga Ram comics, release of a book compiling poems on the Ganga, release of the Ganga Tarang portal, a curtain raiser on the Ganga Knowledge portal, the offcial said.
At state level, it is planned to organise 75 events at 75 different locations, he said.
These will comprise Ganga deepotsavas and artis along ghats, exhibitions, the ‘Meri Ganga Meri Shaan’ campaign, Ganga mashaal being executed through the Ganga Task Force, the official said.
There will also be other activities like painting competitions, afforestation drives, organising blood donation camps, quizes, Ganga dialogues and signature campaigns, he said.
The other glimpses of the events include cultural evenings and shram daan activities. There will also be selfie points at prime locations in cities, and yoga and meditation on Ganga ghats, the official added.