The weeklong historical Kullu Dussehra festival concluded at Kullu on Saturday with the principal deity of the festival Lord Raghunath returning to its temple at Sultanpur and nearly three hundred deities camping at the Dhalpur festival ground for a week, returning to their abodes.
On the last day of the festival the chariot of Lord Raghunath was taken back in a procession as thousands of people joined the ceremony to pull the chariot. Before this Lanka Dahan ceremony was held on the banks of river Beas as the part of concluding ceremony.
The Kullu Dussehra is one of the most famous festivals of deities depicting culture, besides a trade fair of this region and lakhs of locals and tourists and foreign guests participate in the festival every year.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was the chief guest in the concluding day ceremony and participated in several events. .
Addressing a gathering on the occasion the CM announced to increase the offerings to deities by five percent, 20 percent increase in honorarium of Bajantris and 20 percent increase in distance allowance.
He announced the construction of a bridge at a cost of about Rs 26 crore to connect the left and right banks of Beas River at Pirdi in Kullu district. He said the state government would make every effort to construct Bhubhu-Jot tunnel.
Earlier, the CM met foreign dignitaries from six countries during the Ambassador’s Meet at the International Kullu Dussehra festival on Friday. The Ambassadors of Tajikistan, Brunei, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and officials from Russia and Guyana participated in the meet.
The CM invited them to make investments in tourism, green energy, data storage, food processing and sustainable sectors etc in Himachal Pradesh.