Make it more than a festival Sangai Fest : Annual affair
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 07 2015 -
Time to make it more than a festival stretching for ten days.
Time to make it something synonymous with the strategic location of the State vis-a-vis the Act East Policy and transform the State level Sangai Festival into something which can define the place.
Maybe this is too tall an order for this year’s Sangai Festival but something concrete ought to be done with an eye on the future. Lessons may well be taken from the Hornbill Festival hosted every year by the Government of Nagaland.
Where exactly does the Sangai Festival stand in the eyes of the people in comparison with the Hornbill Festival ?
A natural question that should have been raised years back. Moreover has the State Government even asked itself this question ?
Time to transform the Sangai Festival from a ten day festival into an event that can define the place and the people.
The interesting question is whether the State Government and the people have come anywhere near realising this important point.
In a nutshell how many foreign participants has the Sangai Festival been able to attract each year ?
How about media coverage ? Is there enough coverage by the media based outside the State ?
If not then what are the steps that have been taken up so far ?
Or has this question never bothered the minds of the officials responsible for organising this festival annually ?
It is known that the media based in Manipur give it the due coverage but how about the media in other parts of the North East region, forget the other parts of the country ?
Has the State Government made any attempt to reach out to the media outside Manipur by way of giving advertisements ?
A festival it is but it has also now become some sort of a landmark.
Remember the grand announcement of the Chief Minister when he said that the new Sanjenthong will be ready before the Sangai Festival in 2014 ?
It is understood that hectic work is underway to get the new bridge ready but difficult to say whether it will be able to beat the Sangai Festival deadline this year.
Moreover how about the beautifying work being taken up at Kangla moat ?
Will it be ready in time for the festival or will it be some lame attempt to beautify the place in time for the festival ?
And how about the garbage disposal plans ?
Will it be a case of waste and garbage strewn all over the place once the festival is over, as was witnessed some years back, or has the Government drawn up some plans now ?
How about the traffic management ?
Will the past be repeated where the daily visitors have to make way for the VVIPs and create traffic jam all over the place ?
The fundamentals still need to be set straight or it will only be the local people who will continue to be the visitors to the Sangai Festival and this is something to be concerned about.
The failure to attract people from other States of the North East to the biggest festival in the State should be a matter of concern for everyone.
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