‘Government to celebrate Batukamma this year’

Warangal, October 02: Information, public relations and tourism minister J Geeta Reddy today announced that the state government will celebrate Batukamma festival officially in entire Telangana from this year onwards.

For the conduct of this festival, the state government will release Rs 1 lakh each to all districts in the region. Guidelines for organising the festival will also be released soon, she said.

An order to this effect has been issued by the cultural department today.

In the order, the department stated that “Batukamma Panduga” was one of the important social festivals like ‘Bonalu’ being celebrated by the people of Telangana every year. This year, the festival begins on October 7 and will end on October 15 i.e., on Durgashtami.

The festival will be celebrated at all 10 district headquarters and also at some important places in the districts.Each of the district will be given Rs 1 lakh for the festival. The collectors have been directed to encourage participation of women self-help groups, school children, folk artistes, representatives of panchayat raj bodies in addition to the district-level VIPs in the festival.

The celebrations will be held at Silparamam in Hyderabad district. Silparamam special officer in coordination with the culture department director and the district collector will organise the fete.

—Agencies