PK Shahi

Patna, March 21: Plays, exchange of greeting cards, nukkad nataks (street plays), rally by artistes and other events will mark the 99th statehood function of Bihar.

Though chief minister Nitish Kumar will formally inaugurate the official function tomorrow at Gandhi Maidan at around 4.30pm, the day function will start at 7am.

Around 2,000 artistes, many national-level, will take out a rally from Patna College at 7.30am and after passing through Ashok Rajpath, Kargil Chowk and a few important places in the city will converge at Gandhi Maidan, the official venue for the function.

Moreover, nukkad nataks will be held at six places that include Mangal Talav and Khagual. The sprawling Gandhi Maidan is being given finishing touches for the grand function as artists, officials and workers are burning midnight oil for the event.

On Monday, Nitish along with the state human resource development (HRD) minister P.K. Shahi and other senior officials including HRD principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh inspected the stalls and reviewed the last-minute preparations.

Gandhi Maidan has been decorated like a mandap. A few metres from the main entrance is a 20-feet statue of a lady depicting women empowerment.

Apart from portrays depicting women empowerment, there are other paintings and installations that have been put at the maidan for the divas. Professor Atul Aditya Pandey, principal of Arts and Crafts College said: “It is for the first time that in a state-level function such prominence is being given to arts. Around one-fourth portion of maidan is reserved for art exhibition.”

Around 22 paintings, many by national-level artists like Brindavan Solanki from Ahmedabad, R.B. Bhaskaran from Chennai, have been put for exhibition.

In the installation category, art form installation works by noted artistes like Marc Stonestreet from England, Stephen Pipin from Sweden have been put. Sanyasi Red, a noted artiste said: “Bihar Divas has given a platform for artistes to showcase their skills. This is a good sign. I have lived outside for 10 years but now it appears that the state is showing signs of revival of art forms.”

Moreover, various departments of the state would set up stalls through which they will try to showcase the various programmes being run by the departments. Anjani Kumar Singh said: “We have asked various departments to showcase various programmes so that people can gather information from the stalls.”

For refreshments, there would be food stalls, where one can relish the delicacies of Bihar like litti chokha and channa ghugni.