Unique initiative of Municipal Corporation Raipur Culture Department to make children aware about city’s culture and heritage, Culture Day, Heritage Walk with children, a positive event organized by Corporation Culture Department

Raipur – As per the orders of Raipur District Collector and Municipal Corporation Administrator Dr. Gaurav Kumar Singh and as per the instructions of Raipur Municipal Corporation Commissioner Abinash Mishra, the Culture Department of the Municipal Corporation under the guidance of Municipal Corporation Deputy Culture Department Dr. Anjali Sharma has taken a unique initiative to make children aware of the culture and heritage of the city. Deputy Commissioner Dr. Anjali Sharma has informed that the Municipal Corporation Culture Department will continue to organize positive events for the preservation of the culture and heritage of the city, in which the participation of all citizens is expected, Culture Day was celebrated in Saraswati Kanya Shala Purani Basti on 24th January, under which painting, poster design, rangoli and essay writing competitions were organized to give the message of the importance of culture and preservation of heritage to school girls from class 9th to 12th.

The school girls showed their interest in the subject and displayed their art and gave a positive message about the ancient culture and heritage of Raipur city. Some drew a picture of Swami Vivekananda, while some drew a picture of Doodhdhari Math. The children wrote essays on topics related to culture and also highlighted the culture of Raipur through beautiful rangoli. Conservation Architect Nishtha Joshi, while talking to the students, told them about the historical places of Raipur and their importance. In this series, a heritage walk was organized for the students of Saraswati School and NIT Raipur by the Culture Department of Municipal Corporation Raipur this morning. In this heritage walk, the children were taken on a tour of Nagaridas Temple, Hanuman Bavli, Jaitusaav Math, Jagannath Temple and Turi Hatri located in Purani Basti. On this occasion, the children were mainly accompanied by Deputy Commissioner of Municipal Corporation Culture Department Dr. Anjali Sharma, Deputy Commissioner Dr. Divya Chandravanshi, along with Mrs. Shweta Shinde of Municipal Corporation Culture Department and Deputy Engineer Horticulture Department Mr. Ashutosh Pandey. During the Heritage Walk, the children learnt many interesting facts about the history of Raipur city through their curiosity.

Jaitusaav Math is a historical place related to the freedom struggle in Raipur, where freedom fighters from not only Raipur or Chhattisgarh state but the entire country used to gather. There are many such historical photographs on the walls of the Math even today, which are a witness to this. The second Mahant of Jaitusaav Math, Lakshmi Narayan Das ji, was himself a freedom fighter. A school runs in this Math, where even today children acquire knowledge of Sanskrit language. Talking about Turi Hatri, Nishtha Joshi told the children that this is a 400-year-old market, where small girls used to set up shops, hence the name of this place was Turi Hatri. The form of the market has changed today, but the importance of the place has not diminished. Markets play an important role in any city. These were not only important from the economic point of view, but used to be important places for promoting culture. It should be noted that Purani Basti is one of the oldest areas of Raipur. At the end of the programme, in the premises of Saraswati School, certificates and prizes were given to all the participants of Heritage Walk and the skilled students who won the Culture Day competitions. As an incentive, the prize distribution was done by the Culture Department of Municipal Corporation Raipur in the presence of dignitaries of the city with the cooperation of the Principal of Saraswati Kanya Shala Purani Basti, Mrs. Seema Verma and the school management. At the end, Deputy Commissioner of Culture Department of Municipal Corporation, Dr. Anjali Sharma, while encouraging the children, gave a positive message of preservation of culture for its protection and, explaining the importance of voting, made all the children take a collective voting oath.