Tribal priests offer eggs during Garia Puja, an integral part of the state’s culture, in Agartala

Aug. 1: Tripuris based in the city have formed an organisation to showcase and promote the culture of that state in the gateway to the Northeast.

The community at a meeting held in the Tripura Bhavan today floated a socio-cultural organisation called the Longtarai, which means mountain ranges in Kokborok.

The meeting also formed a seven-member ad hoc committee with deputy resident commissioner of Tripura Bhavan, Nilimesh Bhattacharya, as convener.

Bhattacharya said the two prime objectives of the society were to promote socio-cultural exchange and supplement the Tripura government’s effort to help the people of the state who visit the city on different purposes.

“As the city houses the region’s best medical and educational institutions, people of Tripura often have to come here. These people require some help in the form of fixing appointment with the doctors, getting accommodation etc., which the committee would take care of,” Bhattacharya said.

“Though the Tripura government is extending help to these people, in some cases its hands are tied. So we felt that the Tripuris residing in the city can certainly help the people from their state,” he added.

“There was always an urge to hold to our root through cultural and social exchange. The society will provide a platform to fulfil that,” said Mahua Bhowmik Singha, a participant at the meeting.

She said the society would also be a meeting point for people of Tripura in the city and strengthen the bond among themselves.

Bhattacharya said Longtarai would organise cultural programmes to depict the state’s mixed culture and also take the culture of Assam to the people of Tripura through exchange programmes.

In February this year, with the initiative of the Assamese Society in Tripura and the governments of both states, Bihu festival was organised in Tripura.

The Tripura government is also mulling the inclusion of Bihu dance in the work-education curriculum in schools and colleges there, he said.

Bhattacharya said similar societies of Tripuris are there in cities like Calcutta, Delhi and Bangalore.

These societies are immensely helping the people of the state who venture there on various purposes, he added.