Three-day Rajgir Mahotsav concludes

RAJGIR: Various literary and cultural events were organized on the third and final day of the Rajgir Mahotsav on Sunday by the Nalanda district administration and the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC), the co-hosts of the festival.
Schoolchildren from across the district participated in various activities like quiz, speech contest, mehndi contest and rangoli contest etc on the concluding day.Hundreds of enthusiasts cheered at the wrestling, ‘palki’ and tonga decoration contests, cricket and football matches etc organized on the occasion.
‘Kavi Sammelan’, which was organized for the first time in Rajgir Mahotsav was unexpectedly attended by a large audience at Rajgir’s RICC on Sunday. Noted Hindi, Bhojpuri, Maghi, Urdu, Maithli poets from 14 districts across the state enthralled the audience with their verses for more than three hours. Besides Harish Chandra Priyadarshi, former Maghi Academy chairman Uday Shankar Sharma, noted Urdu poet Aftab Hasan Shams, over a dozen poets recited their verses. District and sessions judge Jitendra Kumar opened the Sammelan.
Traders, who came from different parts of the country, to put up their stalls at the ‘Gram Shree’ pavilion too did brisk businesses on the last day after moderate sale of their items during the first two days of the Mahotsav.
The Krishi pavilion displaying heavy machinery and other agricultural tools drew more visitors on Sunday. The book fair too witnessed large number of footfall.
It may be mentioned here that the Rajgir Mahotsav was first held in 1986. Then chief minister Bindeshwari Dubey, erstwhile Union tourism minister HKL Bhagat and former Bihar tourism minister Uma Pandey had presided over the inaugural event in 1986. It was renamed as Rajgir Mahotsav in 2011 with the tourism department playing a key role in organising it.