Sambalpur, Dec. 9: Thousands of folk artistes, wearing traditional attire and playing musical instruments, today took out a rally under the banner of Satyapir Sebasangha, Bhikapali, demanding help from the government.

"We want the government to give proper recognition to the folk artists of the region who are being neglected," said secretary of the Satyapir Sebasangha Muralidhar Nayak, who convened the rally.

Their charter of demands include issuance of identity cards, grant of monthly allowance to those aged 40 and above, raise in their allowance from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000, formation of culture councils in every district, Rs 50,000 grant to their cultural association and reservation for the artistes in government jobs.

Artistes of folk forms, such as pala, sankirtan, sanchar, daskathia, karma and Krushnaguru, took part in the rally.

The artistes also submitted a memorandum to the chief minister seeking fulfilment of their demands.

Police had a tough time in managing the traffic due to the massive rally. Vehicular movement came to a grinding halt for around half an hour on the busy flyover in front of Gangadhar Meher University.

The rally had also caused long traffic snarls at Laxmi Talkies Chhak.

"It took about 40 minutes to cover a distance of around 300 metres from Dhuchurapara Chhak to Laxmi Talkies Chhak because of traffic congestion. I had never seen such a huge gathering of artistes in Sambalpur. Had the traffic police not made adequate arrangement, the situation would have been worse," said a commuter.

Traffic inspector Prashanta Meher said: "We had made arrangements to regulate the traffic during the rally. Thirty cops were deployed to regulate traffic on the road from PHE ground to RDC office."