Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, September 08, 2009:
The Commissioner of Art and Culture, Government of Manipur Shri P.Bharat Singh today urged the authorities of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) for empanelment of artistes from each of tribal communities of Manipur for the ICCR programmes.
Manipur has 34 tribes which are having its own languages and typical culture.
A meeting of the Commissioners/ Secretaries (Art and Culture) of the North Eastern States was convened by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) at the Committee room of the Ministry, Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, Maulana Azad Road here this morning.
The meeting was co-chaired by Jayashree Mukherjee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of DoNER and Sangeeta Bahadur, Deputy Director General (P), ICCR.
P Bharat, Commissioner (Art and Culture) Manipur and representatives from Nagaland, assam, Sikkim, Tripura and Mizoram and Representatives from the North East Zonal Cultural Centre (NEZCC), Dimapur and Ministry of Culture, Government of India attended the meeting.
Sangeeta Bahadur, Deputy Director General of ICCR informed the members that Indian Council for Cultural Relations has the mendate of promoting India's culture and performing arts in the international arena.
An Important aspect of the Look East policy vis-�-vis the north eastern region is to promote cultural exchanges between the North eastern States and India's neighbour, South East Asian countries and other countries.
Few North East groups and performers are empanelled with ICCR and there is a need to encourage troupes and performers from the region to empanel themselves with the ICCR, she added.
In the meeting, P Bharat Singh drew the attention of the NEZCC to speed up the works for publication of the directory of artistes for all disciplines of the NE States.
He opined that the ICCR should empanel the artistes based in the North Eastern States only to expose their hidden talents.
He made the suggestion that the Office �in- Charge of the regional centre of ICCR at Guwahati be instructed to visit all the North East States for selection of genuine artistes and performers.
P Bharat appreciated stated that the proposed empanelment of artistes and cultural troupes from the North eastern States to expose their hidden talents was an encouraging policy.
He said, "The Ministry of Culture has been implementing many schemes for exchanging the culture between different states under the Inter State Cultural Exchange Programme, National Cultural Exchange Programme etc through Zonal Cultural Centres, Sangeet Natak Akademi and other cultural institutions of the country.
However, there is no such scheme which can give the opportunity to expose our rich culture to abroad".