Honorarium of deities up by 25% in Himachal

SHIMLA : Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Monday increase in the ‘nazrana’ (honorarium) paid to local deities, participating in Kullu Dussehra, by 5% and distance allowance (DA) by 25%.

He also announced a 15% increase in remuneration of bajantaris (local musicians) accompanying the deities, besides hiking the amount given to celebrate Haripur and Manikaran Dussehra from ₹75,000 to ₹1 lakh and from ₹50,000 to ₹ 75,000 for Vashisht Dussehra.

The week-long international Kullu Dussehra festival concluded on Monday with great fanfare and enthusiasm. Over 281 deities from various parts of the district participated in the cultural extravaganza.

While presiding over the concluding ceremony held at Lal Chand Prarthi Kala Kendra here, the chief minister said, “People deserve appreciation for preserving the rich culture, age-old customs and traditions of the state. In the present era when the whole world has become a global village in real sense, conserving and preserving our age old traditions for the future generations was indeed appreciable.”

He said Himachal Pradesh is known as the ‘Dev Bhoomi’ as the people of the state hold great faith in the deities.

“Kullu Dussehra provides livelihood to the indigenous community as it provides them with a platform to display their products for a much wider audience. This festival is also contributing immensely to tourism in the state with people from across the globe visiting Kullu to watch this cultural extravaganza,” he said.

He said the endeavour of the state government was to add some innovative events to the festival while keeping the age-old traditions alive. He said steps are being taken to ensure time-bound completion of Rohtang tunnel and efforts would be made to construct ropeways up to Bijli Maha Dev and Rohtang tunnel.