CHANGLANG, Apr 11: The Tutsa community of Changlang district celebrated their prestigious festival, ‘Pongtu Kuh’ with all traditional fervour and zeal here today. 
Minister for Education, Department of Indigenous Affairs (DIA), Taba Tedir and Minister for Sports & Youth Affairs Mama Natung attended the festival celebration as Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively.
Addressing the mass gathering, Tedir said that the DIA is ensuring the preservation and promotion of indigenous faith, culture, and tradition through various approaches.
He said that the DIA will soon provide I-cards to priests from all the tribes within the state to check the flow of fake priests. Likewise, the department has also set up Nyibu Nyagam Yarko school at Seppa which will ensure to provide knowledge on culture, tradition, and faith about the Nyishi community of the state.
“Our children should be well versed with the origin of our community and the most important is to know and speak their own language. Today the most concerning factor is the extinction of a local language,” he said while appealing to the parents to communicate with children in local dialect from a tender age. Tedir said that it is not too late to preserve the local language before it is surpassed by any other foreign language. The state government has already planned to open a Gurukul like ‘Nyibu Nyagam Yarko’ in other districts in phased manner to promote and preserve our cultural identity, he added.

“The Rangfraha and Galo community is very likely to have the Gurukul in their districts in years to come,” he said, adding that more than Rs 30 crore has been provided in the recent budget for the preservation of indigenous culture and traditions. Moreover, every festival should respect Mother Nature as most of the local festival celebrated by different communities in the state is related to the bumper agricultural harvest,said the Minister.
While appreciating the Tutsa community for preserving their indigenous beliefs, culture, and tradition, Minister Mama Natung said that these three factors determine our identity.
Natung on the side lines also appealed to promote the Airgun surrender Abhiyaan in the district to protect Mother Nature and its component. He requested everyone possessing Airgun to surrender to the district administration.
Meanwhile, Local Legislator and also the APSLA Deputy Speaker Tesam Pongte thanked the ministers for inaugurating various state projects in the district as well as for the assurance for future projects in the district.
He said the district is economically backward as compared to the rest of the districts in the state. The people are totally dependent on agriculture; the most practised is the shifting agriculture.   
“We are economically backward but culturally rich. So to bring a boost in agriculture, we are encouraging the people to opt for cash crop cultivation in the district,” he said, while greeting everyone on the Pongtu-Kuh festival celebration.
Among others, Advisor to PWD minister Phosum Khimhun, Advisor to Tourism minister Laisam Simai, Taliha MLA Nyato Dukom , MLA Samlung Mossang, MLA Ojing Tasing along with Deputy Commissioner Devansh Yadav, SP Mihin Gambo, Commandant -9AR and others were present on the day.  

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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