The Minister for Industries and Commerce, Chander Parkash inaugurated Folk Dance festival on concluding day of ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Week’ here at historic Samba Fort. The festival was organized by District Administration in collaboration with Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.The Minister was accompanied by MLA Samba Dr Devinder Kumar Manyal, DDC Samba Sheetal Nanda, SSP Anil Magotra, ADC Tilak Raj Sharma, Additional Secretary JKAACL Amrinder Singh Aman , DSWO Mushtaq Choudhary, EO Samba Jodh Raj and senior officials from District administration.The artists from JKAACL presented colorful folk dances and enthralled the audiences by their performances. The folk groups led by Sanjeev Kumar, Sachin Katal, Buia Ditta, Charan dass, Bishan Dass, Ajit Paul Sharma, Des Raj ,Satinder Kumar parties presented the dances. Dogri women poets Sunita Padwal and Usha kiran also presented their creative works.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister appreciated the massive ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ campaign launched by the District administration. He said that IEC activities being undertaken for promoting girl empowerment and education are clearly visible throughout the district. He said that enabling of female child can change mindset of society so that instead of considering them as burden, they are held in high esteem.The MLA Samba stressed upon sensitization at the ground level in rural areas and regular monitoring of the campaign by the respective officers. He emphasised upon better coordination between ICDS and Health department asserting that Asha, Anganwadi and FMPH workers has a pivotal role in the campaign. Daughter of Samba Shikhi Sambyal, who won accolades for getting first award from PM in national level essay writing competition on the topic 'Swachta hi Sewa', was also felicitated on the occasion. Shoba Devi, Sakshi Devi and Preeti Devi were also felicitated for excelling in various fields.The ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ week celebrated by District Administration saw massive participation of students, employees and general public.Earlier, a sensitization programme was organized at ICDS Project Ghagwal in which mothers of newly born female girls were felicitated by SDM, Narayan Dutt Sharma and CDPO Ajay Sharma. The ICDS functionaries were also shown 'Dangal ' movie promoting female empowerment.