Punjab scales down Amarinder govt’s festivals

Only Kapurthala Heritage Festival was held this year, albeit on a low-key manner.

Sources said the Punjab Government has cancelled its agreement with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), which, along with the former, organised the festivals in the past five years.

The previous Amarinder Singh government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with INATCH for holding the festivals.

Confirming this, state Tourism Minister Hira Singh Gabrian told The Indian Express: “We will now hold the heritage festivals on our own and not involve INTACH. We are just trying to conserve money and avoid wasteful expenditure.”

Gabrian, however, said that the Patiala and Amritsar Heritage Festivals, started by the previous Congress regime, have not been cancelled, but “only postponed”.

“We will soon hold the festivals at an appropriate date, for which a meeting has been convened,” Gabrian said. He, however, added that these festivals will not be held any time soon, as children are busy in their exams now and thereafter summer would be at its peak. The minister said the state Government has earmarked a budget of Rs one crore for holding the two heritage festivals, which are normally held during the beginning of the year.

During the previous years, as much as Rs 3 crore were spent annually on holding such festivals. Incidentally, the Government had set up a Festival Committee with Amarinder’s wife and Preneet Kaur as its chairperson for holding these mega events during the previous regime. The Opposition at that time had often raised

voices against large allocation of funds for the said committee, which spent lavishly. Voices were also raised on the repetition of the performing artistes every year.

Ironically, the five years of heritage festivity have also failed to secure the royal heritage of Patiala city. Despite having spent crores in the name of preservation, Qila Mubarak — the royal fort, continues to languish.

Money continued to be spent on classical music and dance concerts, which were meant to be only a very minor part of the overall heritage festival projects conceived for Patiala, Kapurthala and Amritsar.

It may be recalled that Qila Mubarak’s restoration was labelled as “top priority” by Patiala Heritage Society, which was formed in the first year of the heritage festival.

The society sought INTACH’s help to execute restoration of Quila Mubarak. The trust took interest in the initial year of the celebrations, but lost focus later.