The Itkhori Mahotsav kicked off on Thursday in a grand style and with the promise of more exposure to the place which is significant for three religions — Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism — that enlightened the world. The festival was inaugurated by Chief Minister Raghubar Das.
The CM assured that the grand festival and Deoghar ‘shravani mela’ will be declared as ‘State festival’ in the next Cabinet meeting.
Itkhori will also be given status of a tourist spot in time to come to make it count among international tourist destinations.
The Jharkhand CM offered prayers at Bhadrakali Mandir and inspected Itkhori museum.
The festival will be attended by revered Buddhist religious figure, Ugyen Trinley Dorje, his disciples and followers of the religious guru.
The festival will prove a milestone for Jharkhand’s tourism industry as all eyes will be set at Itkhori, a name which was coined during Buddhist era.
Hundreds of artists of Jharkhand and from across the country will perform during the three-day festival which will be a unique blend of culture, tradition and will showcase unity among diverse religions that characterises India.
The CM offered tribute to freedom fighter, Jay Mangal Pandey, and expressed that the pond where the martyr was given capital sentence will be developed into a tourist place.
He expressed his desire to connect Itkhori to Buddha Circuit and connect the famous place of religion significance for the three religions to the holiest place for Buddhists, Bodh Gaya.
The CM said construction of Itkhori-Gaya Road will start very soon and lack of water will also be addressed soon.
Itkhori is located 1.5 km away from Itkhori Block in Bhaduli village, Chatra district and is surrounded from three sides by Buxa River whose water flows in U-shape.
There have been demands to include Itkhori in Buddhist circuit due to its significance for the followers of Buddha.
Meanwhile, CM enumerated Government’s priorities of establishing peaceful environment, accountable and transparent Government besides providing employment to the people of Jharkhand.
Das emphasised on preventing illegal mining, putting a lid on corruption and urged people to support administration to help in comprehensive development of Jharkhand.
He expressed Government’s commitment to provide employment to the people of Jharkhand and assured that jobs will be created and companies are being invited to achieve the goal.
The CM shared his vision of developing Jharkhand the way Gujarat has been developed.
Jharkhand will be developed and unemployment will be addressed to control extremism, he asserted.
The CM said that appointment of about 1 lakh teachers will be completed within six months along with appointment of 34,000 teachers for schools across Jharkhand.
Moreover, the State constabulary will also get additional 10,000 constables, 4,000 sub-inspectors and recruitment process for the additional police force is already underway.
Significantly, the CM informed the gathering that all departments have been asked to furnish details of vacant positions and recruitment process has been started by the Government.
Chatra MP, Sunil Kumar Singh; Chatra MlA, Jai Prakash Bhokta; Barhi MlA, Manoj Kumar Yadav and officials of Tourism department were present at the inaugural function of the festival.
