Govt adds colour to celebrations, disburses Rs 22.6cr to Bihu committees

Guwahati: State govt disbursed a total of Rs 33.6 crore to 2,241 Rongali Bihu organising committees as financial assistance. This initiative was started in 2022 to ‘stop the old culture of forcible donation collection to organise the festival".
The financial assistance was disbursed two days ahead of Rongali Bihu (also called as Bohag bihu), which is celebrated to mark the beginning of the Assamese New Year.
Financial assistance of Rs 1.5 lakh was provided to each Bihu committee, which have been organising celebrations for at least the last 10 years. Last year, 2,114 committees received the aid.
Meanwhile, Bihu dance rehearsals and preparation of traditional Bihu delicacies, are in full swing across the state. Bihu dance groups, including ‘Charaideo Bihu Husori Dol and ‘Nimaijan Bihu Husori', are utilising every second to gain perfection. Women in rural areas have completed weaving ‘gamosas' on hand looms, which will be offered as Bihuwan.
Anjali Kumar, a weaver from Rangia in Kamrup district, completed weaving 10 gamosas on her age-old handloom on Saturday. She will prepare various types of ‘pithas' using rice powder, jaggery, coconut and sesame on Sunday, a day before the first day of Bihu, which is called ‘Goru Bihu'.
In Guwahati and town areas, stages and pandals have been erected to host cultural programmes. Bipul Chandra Das, general secretary of the 45-year-old Ganeshguri Rongali Bihu Sanmilan committee, said governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya and CM Himanta Biswa Sarma will grace the event. Popular singers Zubeen Garg, Achurjya Borpatra, and Marmita Mitra will perform on different days of the three-day-long programme of the Bihu organising committee.