Foundation day celebration to mark state's growth

Chhattisgarh’s foundation day celebration starting from Tuesday would depict state’s growth registered in last 11 years since it was carved in 2000.

The five-day Chhattisgarh Rajyotsav—the state’s foundation state celebration—would get off on Tuesday at the sprawling science college ground here. A mammoth exhibition is also organized on the occasion where different government departments and corporate put up its stalls highlighting the achievements.

All prominent corporate houses having facilities in Chhattisgarh are participating in the exhibition. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) are the organizers of the event.

“The theme of this year’s foundation day celebration will be the growth achieved by the state in last 11 years with special focus on Chhattisgarh handicraft and art,” state’s culture minister Brijmohan Agrawal said here on Monday. The function organized at the district level will also focus on the same theme, he added.

Agrawal said the state had achieved remarkable growth in all sectors since after it was carved out of Madhya Pradesh on November 1, 2000. “The new generation should know how the state had progressed in achieving highest growth and for this, the exhibition had been organized,” the minister added.

Meanwhile, the opposition party Congress had criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled state government for organizing the state’s foundation day function with much “fan-fair”. The party had decided to boycott the function.

“The state is reeling under many problems, the prominent among it include a large number of poor villagers losing eye-sight after surgery in government-run camps,” Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Nandkumar Patel said. When darkness prevails for the poor villagers, how one can think of celebrating function with pomp, he added.

Patel said everyone was happy to celebrate state’s foundation day. “But this was not the occasion when farmers were facing problem and people in Northern parts yet to recover from the devastating flood that struck a couple of months ago,” he added.

Agrawal however defended the state government and said the Rajyotsav was people’s show and hence it should not be seen with other perspective.