21 Oct :Governor of Nagaland K. Sankaranarayanan, who is also the chairman of the North East Zonal Cultural Centre (NEZCC) in his address at the Annual Executive Board Meeting & Governing Body meeting at the Conference Hall, Police Complex, Chumukedima on 21st October 2008 said that NEZCC is a vibrant and active institution and with the help and support of all the eight members states, it is contributing for the development and promotion of the rich cultural diversity and tradition of the North Eastern States throughout the country.
The NEZCC at Dimapur was inaugurated by Late Rajiv Gandhi on 6th October 1987 for the promotion and preservation of Art & Culture of the region and its assimilation with the cultural mainstream, the journey of the last 21 years has been truly challenging and the centre has taken up the onerous task of preservation, development and documentation of arts, crafts and literature with special emphasis on folklore, folk tradition and vanishing arts of the North East Region. It is incredible that the people of the region have lost their own identity, which speaks volumes for their inner strength and love for their own tradition, handed down from generation to generation. He also said that the time has come to encourage the exposure of the rich culture of the people of the North East, especially the colorful performing folk arts and classical forms for art at the international platforms.
The Governor said that the NEZCC has been receiving regular grants for various schemes under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India that includes the National Cultural Exchange Programme, Guru Sishya Parampara, Young Talent Award, Theater Rejuvenation & Documentation. He also said that NEZCC operates on a Corpus Fund of Rs.21.90 Crores and the interest earnings of the Corpus Fund have enabled the centre to meet its establishment costs as well as other programme expenditures. He also informed that it has requested the state Government of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya to contribute the remaining balance of Rs50.00 Lakhs and Rs 60 Lakhs respectively.
The Governor further said that the importance of the Zonal Cultural Centers have been taken note of by the Bhaskar Ghose Committee set up by Government of India and in the near future more and more programmes of the ministry of culture, Government of India is expected to be decentralized and delegated to the Zonal Cultural Centers.
Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs & Tourism, Tripura, Anil Sarkar in his speech said that the state Tripura is the habitat for a spectrum of linguistic groups, which comes with linguistic disparities along this indigenous cultures not withstanding their socio religious variations a sort of cultural confluence has emerged from this with a view to developing and rejuvenating the existing and decaying culture of the state, the ICAT Department has been implementing different programmes. Efforts are on to maintain harmony and integrity through culture to promote the new talents cultural workshop, festivals, cultural programmes etc in the rural areas are being organized regularly.
Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Art & Culture and Law & Justice, Nagaland Yitachu in his speech said that the North States have been cut off from the mainland India for so many decades. However, with the coming together of the North Eastern states much brighter future lies ahead of us to exhibit our rich cultural heritage to the people of the mainland and even to the outside world. While speaking for the state, he said that the state Government has put its best efforts to showcase its rich cultural heritage of the sixteen indigenous inhibiting tribes in the state by organizing festivals like Hornbill festival each year apart from the cultural festivals each tribe is observing throughout the year to preserve and promote its rich traditions. He appealed to the NEZCC to help and to promote the state rich traditional culture to the National and international level. Altogether 35 officials and dignitaries from the eight North Eastern States are attending the meeting. Later in the evening a cultural programme was organized by the host NEZCC staff to entertain the participants.