Surajkund mela begins today; Telangana is theme state
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, January 31
The annual Surajkund Crafts Mela is all set to greet the visitors from tomorrow. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will inaugurate the mela here tomorrow. It will remain open till February 15 and is likely to receive several thousand visitors including a large number of foreign tourists.
Stating this, Sumita Mishra, Principal Secretary, Haryana Tourism, said besides the Chief Minister, other VIPs to be present at the inauguration ceremony include Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Dr Mahesh Sharma and A. Chandulal, Tourism Minister of Telangana.
She said nearly 1,500 artisans would showcase their crafts and talent in the fair. She said there was a marginal rise in the number of foreign nations as a total of 23 countries would be taking part in the mela, against a total of 20 countries last year.
“The mela hosted for the first time in 1987 to showcase richness and diversity of the handicrafts, handloom and the cultural heritage of India has come to occupy a place of pride and prominence on the international tourism calendar for its display of crafts, culture and cuisine of India in aesthetically created ambience,” she said. Feature of online ticket sale has been introduced for the first time. Beside the availability of the tickets at over 30 Metro stations in Delhi and NCR, the authorities have introduced special buses to ferry visitors from the surrounding areas to the fair site.
She said the mela which was upgraded to an international level in 2013 had a participation of 20 countries from Europe, Africa and South Asia last year.
This time, the participating countries include Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Thailand, Maldives, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, China and Japan.
“Telangana will be the ‘Theme State’ this year and it will be showcasing its culture and heritage through the participation of 300 artisans,” she added.
