The elephant festival would be celebrated under the aegis of the tourism, forest department and the Golaghat district administration. The total budget for the elephant festival has been pegged at Rs 15 lakh.
Detailed budget allocation includes construction of bamboo fencing, office room and other necessary arrangements entailing a cost of Rs 3,42,000, besides stage making Rs 52,000. in food and catering Rs 2.45 lakh, publicity Rs 1.50 lakh and VIP reception Rs 30,000. Of the total budgeted amount of Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10 lakh would be mobilised from sponsors, including Rs 5 lakh by the government, the secretary of the elephant festival Mridul Mahanta, SDO Bokakhat told the newsmen at Golaghat circuit house.
According to Mridul Mahanta, more than 50 elephants would be locally arranged and the responsibility of elephant would lie with the director of KNP. A SHG mela would also be arranged for 3 days from February 9 to 11, informed Birendra Nath Phukan, project director of DRDA, Golaghat.
The other programmes of the elephant festival are arrangement of health check-up camp for elephants, cultural function would be held by various states of North East India, games involving elephants, holding international seminar on man-elephant conflicts, cinema exhibition, release of souvenir, health check-up camp for forest guards of the forest department, taking out cultural procession, gypsy safari, adventure sports, boat cruise at Brahmaputra, competition on traditional food, interaction with the mahouts, etc.
The secretary of the elephant festival has appealed to the people of Golaghat to extend their cooperation and attendance in particular, and to the people of Assam in general to make the festival a grand success.
The office bearers of the Kaizranga elephant festival include chief patron Tarun Gogoi, Chief Minister, patrons: Bijoy Krishna Handique, Prithvi Majhi, Chandan Brahma, Pradyut Bordoloi and Ajanta Neog. Chief adviser : Rockybul Hussain, advisers Deep Gogoi, MP, Kaliabor PC, Jiten Gogoi, MLA Bokakhat, Debeswar Bora, Golaghat district Cong president, Bhupen Choudhury, ex-MLA, Lakshminath Tamuly, Commissioner, upper Assam, S Doley, Dilip Barua, director tourism, Deepak Goswami, MD, Tourism Mohan Malakar, Mohan Malakar, Debo Kumar Nath, Bapkon Das, journalist, besides president: Haren Bora, DC, Golaghat, working president: Suren Buragohain, director KNP, vice-president: Ajit Bordoloi, CEO, GZMP, Deepak Kumar, SP, Golaghat, Biren Phukan, project director, DRDA, Golaghat, Om Prakash, SDO (Kaliabor) and general secretary, Mridul Mahanta, SDO (Civil) Bokakhat.
NREGA implementation: For implementation of the NREGA scheme at Golaghat, a total of 72,228 job cards were issued.
The DRDA of Golaghat district provided works to 17,660 job seekers. The total fund allotted for the NREGA scheme is Rs 10.45 lakh by the government of India.
The project director of the Golaghat District Rural Development Agency Biren Chandra Phukan, apprised about the funds allotted to them as under: Padumoni block: 5 schemes are being worked. The funds allotted is Rs 72,59,700; Gomariguri development block: 14 schemes being worked out with Rs 1,33,35820; Morongi development block: 32 schemes worth Rs 3,54,58,400; Kothalguri centre: four schemes worth Rs 30,42,500; Kakodunga development block schemes worth Rs 62,21,880 and Sarupathar development block with 16 schemes worth Rs 1,39,44,309 respectively.
In Golaghat district, each job card holders had opened accounts at the Assam Gramin Bikash Bank.
Bee attack: Bees colonising Kaziranga National Park injured 30 persons at Gosaibari within KNP on January 4.
The injured persons included Sohidur Rahman (40) Dugla Munda (30) Nurjahan Begum (65) and Chutu Munda (50). They were rushed to the Bokakhat hospital for treatment. It may be mentioned here that bees have colonised several areas of KNP since the past ten years and are an object of great attention for the foreign tourists.
The local people have taken all steps to create a congenial environment for the bees. The KNP authority too takes proper measures for their safety in order to attract tourists.