The traditional Kharchi Puja of the state will start from June26 and a preparatory meeting was held on Thursday  in the conference hall of the District Magistrate office of West Tripura.

Former Speaker and MLA Ratan Chakrabort, who presided over the meeting, said the Kharchi Puja and Mela is one of the festivals of the country. Every year, many tourists visit this fair, as well as saints from different places.

 Although Kharchi Puja is a festival of the tribal community of the state, nowadays people of all religions engage in it equally. Artistes from the state and outside the state participate in the cultural programme organized by the Department of Information and Cultural Affairs on the occasion of this fair. He urged the officials of all departments to make the fair an all-round success. In the preparatory meeting, the District Magistrate of West Tripura district, Debapriya Bardhan discussed in detail about what needs to be done by different departments for the fair and instructed the officials of the departments to complete all the works on time. Renovating the access roads of 14 Devatabari temple connected with the fair, keeping the electricity system intact and repairing it, providing adequate lighting in the temple and the fair premises, cleaning the fair premises, providing drinking water, aiming to ensure that there is no inconvenience to the pilgrims around the fair. Maintaining law and order, arrangement of car parking, installation of CCTV cameras, distribution of fair stalls, arrangement of health services on fair days, arrangement of traffic control etc. were discussed in detail.

It was decided in the meeting that exhibition booths will be opened by various government departments of the state like every year. An executive committee and various sub-committees were formed for the smooth conduct of the fair from June 26.

Mayor of Agartala Municipal Corporation Dipak Majumdar, In-charge Sabhadhipati of West Tripura Zilla Parishad Haridulal Acharya, Chairman of Old Agartala Panchayat Samiti Biswajit Shil, Director of Elementary Education Department Subhasis Bandopadhyay, Sub- Divisional Magistrate of Jirania Sub-Division Shanti Ranjan Chakma, BDO of Old Agartala Block Shayari Banik, Social Worker Amit Kumar Nanda including Officials of various departments were present in the meeting.