Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Sunday inaugurated the week-long 'Kankaria Carnival', an annual event organised by Ahmedabad civic body at the redeveloped lakefront in the city.
The festival is being held after a coronavirus-induced gap of two years.The festival will have various cultural programmes, laser beam show, yoga-aerobics, food festival, horse and dog shows in addition to adventure activities for children. It will conclude on December 31, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) said in a press release. The organisers distributed face masks to the visitors and applied sanitisers as the festival comes at a time when another wave of Covid-19 pandemic looms over the country. The event was cancelled in 2021 due to the Omicron scare. In 2020, it was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Advertisement
Speaking at the inauguration, CM Patel said that former chief minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi provided an outstanding example of good governance by changing the face of Kankaria lake and developing citizen-centric services in Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad has many memories related to the freedom struggle, with Mahatma Gandhi setting up his Sabarmati Ashram and launching the Dandi march, he said, adding that the city also has a modern outlook.
The theme of the festival is 'Gandhi Bridge to Atal Bridge', which seeks to highlight the recently-opened foot over-bridge in the city that is named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The CM said that along with different amusement activities, blood donation camps will be organised on all seven days of the carnival. On the occasion, Patel also launched "Panchmahotsav" being organised at Pavagadh in Panchmahal district.
Advertisement
"How Gujarat has assimilated modernity can be seen in the Kankaria Carnival. At the same time, the splendour of Gujarat's cultural richness and traditional Lok Mela can be seen in the Pavagadh Panchamotsav," he said.
