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A martial artist of the All Nagaland Shaolin Kungfu Association performs a routine at the December Fest, on Wednesday, at DDSC stadium in Dimapur.[/caption]
Dimapur, Dec. 19: The holiday season is here so is the festive season. Dimapur town has been hosting various carnivals and entertainment events during the season. A new addition to the season is the “December Fest,” a two-day event organised by ‘The Better Dimapur’ team in collaboration with the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC), Naga Council Dimapur; GB Union of Dimapur; Dimapur Urban Council Chairmen Federation (DUCCF); and Naga Women Hoho of Dimapur.
The idea was to bring different communities and denizens of Dimapur under one area and bring out friendship for a healthy relationship and a better Dimapur and no doubt the healthy relationship among Dimapurians was witnessed with traditional events such as Tug-of-war and bamboo stilt race and the oath taking ceremony by the respective colonies bearing their flags during the inaugural of the "December Fest" at DDSC stadium in Dimapur on Wed. Dec. 19.
The event-a three-day program was scheduled to be inaugurated on Tue. Dec. 18 and conclude on Dec. 20 but due to the downpour, the inaugural of the fest was held on Wed. Dec. 19 with General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 Corps Lt. Gen Gopal R AVSM, SM as the special guest.
Lauding the brains behind “December Fest”, Gopal R remarked the fest similar to Hornbill festival and believed that the fest will turn out to be an annual fest. He was impressed with the community participation from the various colonies for the fest and exhorted to the community that ‘civic sense and civic responsibility goes together’ and implored upon them to practice both for a clean, green and a healthy Dimapur.
Encouraged with the initiative of “A better Dimapur” project by DMC which involves participation of the community, the guest iterated the community to that he was impressed with the community participation in taking care of the traffic-of taking up road project-clearing of the garbage and in line to this, persuaded the community to take a pledge to make Dimapur clean, green and healthy.
“Even if I leave Dimapur, I would like to and hope to read in newspapers that Dimapur is the cleanest city in the country but still we have miles to achieve and this can happen when every individual cooperate towards A Better Dimapur project”, Gopal R said. He expressed optimism that the community will make a solemn effort and oath for a better Dimapur and assured contribution from his Corps towards the betterment of Dimapur. Also he requested the participants and the community present to leave the stadium clean as it was when they walked in.
Paper Village
With a lot to be said on the fest, another hopeful sight was the Community Avenue Network (CAN) Youth's "Paper Village" project stall at the stadium promoting the use of paper bags. The PDA led govt. is also in an endeavour to “free the state of plastic waste” as announced by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio earlier this year and so are the CAN Youth who have been imparting paper bag making to women of all age group with the project named "Paper Village."
"However it is not so easy to convince our people to discourage the use of plastic as plastic has become part of our daily life and there has never been a strict rule to discourage its use" Jenpu Rongmei, the chief functionary of CAN Youth, said since the organisation started promoting paper bag activities in 2015.
With the endeavour to discourage plastic use in Dimapur, the organisers of "December Fest" have strongly recommended for use of paper bags to all the participants and the CAN Youth who have been on an endeavour to promote the use of paper bags will make the paper bags available at the venue starting from INR 7 to INR 70. The money generated from the "Paper Village" during the "December fest" will be provided towards the "My Scholarship Foundation" that supports students in the Below Poverty Line category.
