CM, Singapore team join Sankranti fete

Visakhapatnam: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday launched Sankranti Sambaralu organised in a complete rural atmosphere atop Kailasagiri Hill in the city limits. Singapore Minister for Trade, Industry and Home Affairs S Eswaran participated and kites were flown on the occasion.

The Kailasagiri Hill wore a festive look as the entire area was filled with the folk arts of Telugu culture and tradition which surprised the Singapore team. ‘Sankranti Vachchindi-Gobbillo Gobbillo’ folk song presented by a team of women was the main attraction of the event and the Chief Minister participated in the Dhimsa dance programme presented by a tribal women. The ancient folk arts like ‘Gangireddulu, Tappetagullu, kolatam and puliveshalu’ were presented mesmerising the VIPs and the audience.

Naidu also took part in the folk dances along with the artistes. The Sankranti Sambaralu venue was decorated with many harvested crops, lots of sugarcane, bananas, pumpkins and traditional sweets where the Chief Minister explained the Singapore team about the importance of the festival, crops and the sweets. The Singapore team along with the Chief Minister posed for photographs near the flower-decked bullock cart and later they praised the festival spirit of the people here after tasting various dishes of traditional sweets.

Earlier, the Chief Minister arrived in the city along with the Singapore team to participate in the festival at 12 noon. They were received by Ministers Ch Ayyanna Patrudu, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, K Atchemnaidu, P Narayana, Lok Sabha Member K Hari Babu, MLAs Velagaudi Ramakrishna Babu, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar, P Vishnukumar Raju, Palla Srinivasa Rao, Collector N Yuva Raj, Municipal Commissioner Praveen Kumar, Vuda Vice Chairman Baburao Naidu and Joint Collector Nivas. En route to Kailasagiri Hill, the Chief Minister and the team participated at the Sankranti Sambaralu organized at Madhavadara.