Navratra Festival Celebrations: Cultural Procession, Folk Performances & Devotional Song Competition

Katra, Jammu (J&K), October 11, 2013 - Amidst unprecedented activities added with spiritual atmosphere, a colourful cultural procession highlighting the cultural and religious significance of the J&K state was taken out from Asia crossing Katra where a large number of people from all section of the society, devotees and yatries (pilgrims) accompanied the procession last evening. Superintendent of Police, Katra, Mr. Pawan Parihar and IAS Probationers, Dr. Piyush Singla, Mr. Ravinder Kumar and Mr. Akhilesh Kumar who were the special guests on the occasion jointly lit the sacred jyoti before the start of procession.

The attractive cultural procession after passing through the main locations of the Holy town of Katra, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, finally culminated at Govt. Higher Secondary School Katra. Project Officer DRDA, Reasi, Dr. Jagdish Mehra, Assistant Director Tourism, Veenakshi Kaul, SP, Suram Singh, President Hotel & Restaurant Association, Katra, Sham Kesar, Cultural Association, Katra, Surinder Khajuria, SDPO, Katra, Rajinder Katoch and Members of the festival committee were prominent among those who accompanied the procession.

Meanwhile, artists of Song & Drama Division presented a colourful cultural bonanza including folk dances and songs in the premises of Hr. Secondary School Katra last evening. Folk Dances of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal, Manipur, Punjab were highly appreciated by the audience present on the occasion.

As a part of Navratra Festival, Shri Bhagvat Katha is also going on in the premises of Shri Ragunath Temple, Katra where large number of devotees are converging to listen to the holy verses of Katha during the Navratra days.

Besides, a scintillating cultural programme was also organized by the students in the premises of Gvt. Higher Secondary School, Katra in which students of different educational institutions presented group dances and songs which got loud applause from the audience. Principal of GHSS, Katra, Mrs. Tripta Bhardwaj, Zona;l Education Officer, Pouni, Mr. Harish Dubey and heads of the various educational institutions were present on the occasion.

The All India Devotional Song Competition entered the 6th day. Ishant Sidhu from Shimla was awarded a cash prize of Rs.5,000 who clinched first position on the 6th day of All India Devotional Song Competition organized by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVD), J&K Tourism Department, district administration, Reasi in collaboration with different agencies on Friday evening during the ongoing Navratra Festival at Katra. Vishwa Gandrav from Jammu got second position while Viva Bharti from Kathua and Vikram Badyal from Udhampur shared third position in the contest.

The Mega Final of the All India Devotional Song Contest would be held on October 12, 2013 and the competition would be adjudged by the famous personalities from media and Bollywood. Winner of the mega final would be awarded with a gold coin amounting Rs.1 lakh and a recording contract with Venus Records & Tapes Pvt. Ltd.

The live telecast of Mega Final of All India Devotional Song Competition will be available on Disha Channel and Shardha MH One from 9.15 PM onwards. This was announced by Chairman All Indian Devotional Song Committee, Rakesh Wazir, while addressing the media here on Friday.

The final would be judged by famous bollywood and media personalities like Ramesh Taurani, Vikas Mohan, Barkha Arora, Aftab Shivdasani to be held in the Yog Ashram Complex Katra and the entry for this event will be free to all.

The Chairman said that Navratra Festival’s All India Devotional Song Competition is organized jointly by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board J&K Tourism in association with Zee News, Zee Jagran, Shradha Mh One, Disha Channel, Big 92.7 FM, Nidheesh Builders Pvt. Ltd., Jai Mata Di Sewa Sangh Prasadi, J&K Bank, Distt. Administration, Civil Defence, Hotel & Restaurant Association Katra, under the overall supervision of Navratra Festival Committee headed by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu himself.

The Devotional Song Competition started 16 years back with the main aim to promote and provide platform to the singers from all over the India in the holy township of Katra, besides promotion of the tourism in J&K. Most of the judges especially Ganesh Jain Managing Director Venus Records & Tapes Ltd., Ramesh Taurani Managing Director Tips Industries Ltd., Vikas Mohan Trade Analyst and Barkha Arora C.E.O Zee Jagran remained associated with it from the very beginning and this year Aftab Shivdasani leading film Actor have also joined it.

This All India Devotional Song Competition has contributed a lot to the state of Jammu & Kashmir and has given platform to many singers in the film industry including Himani Kapoor, Mool Raj, Paramjit Singh Pamma, Naveen Punjabi, Rajan Gill, Sonali Dogra, Reeta Khadyal, Ravi Kumar, Sanjeet Kumar, Anjusha etc.