Puducherry: Lt Governor Kiran Bedi joined the people of TN Palayam village, a hamlet jointly adopted by Raj Nivas and NCC to create a clean environment and open-defecation free, to celebrate Pongal festival.
The celebrations were marked by prayers, folk songs, dances, Swachh Bharat and Sapling distribution programmes. She offered prayers at a local temple and held talks with the villagers with the help of officials accompanying her.
‘Mohanraj of Mahindra Holidays, Pondicherry, distributed 25 sets of garbage bins for source segregation of garbage.
These bins will be placed throughout the village and the women have taken the responsibility to maintain them. In addition, team Mahindra has committed to conduct ongoing source segregation training for the residents of TN Palayam village, an official press release said.
Saplings provided by the Forest Department were distributed to the children for planting in the temple premises. The Lt. Governor exhorted each child to take care of the plant and nourish it to healthy growth. ‘Prayers, music, dance and sports unite people’, she later wrote in her twitter account.
Puducherry celebrated Pongal, the harvest festival with great fervor and traditional gaiety with people clad in new clothes offering prayers at different temples and distributing sweet Pongal to others.
People decorated their homes with mango leaves and strings of flowers. Towns and villages wore a festive atmosphere where people participating in competitions to mark the festival.
The deity of the famous Manakkula Vinayagar temple was adorned with golden shields (Kavacham) and Chief Minister V Narayanasamy offered prayers in the temple. Pongal was celebrated for the first time at Rajnivas, the official residence of Lt Governor Kiran Bedi.
