The great and colourful immersion carnival festival “Mayer Goman” has been kicked off by the Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha in presence of a host of dignitaries from Agartala city centre on Thursday evening.

The inauguration of the great carnival festival begins with spectacular cultural programmes performed by different groups of artists and after formal inauguration of the event, amidst thousands of devotees the immersion ceremony by different clubs and community Durga Puja organizers of the state capital started in the long HGB Road of Agartala city towards their destination to Dashamighat at the bank of river Howrah.

While, in his inaugural address in the gathering, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha said that festivals like Durga puja strengthen the mutual bonding of people of the state. He said that irrespective of caste, creed and religion, the people of Tripura unitedly observed the festival of Durga Puja and sought blessings for prosperous society. He added that the united bonding of people seen in the festival, will take positive steps to build ‘Ek Tripura, Shrestha Tripura.’

Amidst thousands of gatherings on both sides of the main road, Dr Saha said that the government is always promoting the cultural heritage of the state's people and has also appealed to people to cooperate with the government for developing the cultural traditions of the state.

Last year also the Information and Cultural Affairs (ICA) department organized the great and spectacular festival, which gets tremendous support and response from cross section of society and boosts up the celebration of the greatest festival of the state, said Dr Saha.

The Chief Minister also said that a peaceful environment prevails across the state and this year, the number of community Durga Puja has been increased in comparison of last year and the four days long festival celebrated in the state in a peaceful manner without any untoward incident.

The secretary of Information and Cultural Affairs (ICA) department, Dr Pradip Chakraborty said that to attract the people during festivities, the great immersion carnival ‘Mayer Goman’ has been organized by the state government since last year, which is getting tremendous support from state’s people.

In order to commemorate the festival of immersion, the ‘Mayer Goman’ ceremony is being organized with health competition among the organizers and in coming days such a kind of cultural festival will also be organized across the state.

Giving details on the preparation for the great immersion carnival festival of Goddess Durga, Dr Chakraborty said that the department has also taken measures that people from outside Agartala can witness the festival and the department will give prizes to clubs, who are participating in the “Mayer Goman” carnival. Among the participating clubs, first prize will be awarded with Rs. 50,000, second prize with Rs. 30,000 and third prize winner club will get Rs. 20,000.

Meanwhile, during the carnival ceremony, irrespective of castes and creeds, a huge number of people thronged the entire stretch of HGB Road during immersion of the Goddess, which is still going on till last report.

In the carnival festival, Finance Minister Pranajit Sigha Roy, Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury and other cabinet members of the state, Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) Dipak Majumder, Chief Secretary J K Sinha, DGP Amitabh Ranjan, secretary of ICA department Dr PK Chakraborty, director of ICA, Bimbishwar Bhattacharjee along with eminent social worker Rajib Bhattacharjee were also present along with other dignitaries.