Andhra Pradesh - Ongole   

Raise issues of the poor, writers told

— Photo: SRINIVAS KOMMURI

Enthralling: Artistes giving a performance at the State-level street-play festival at Ongole on Friday.

ONGOLE: The State conference of Praja Natya Mandali has demanded the government to announce its cultural policy and allocate Rs. 100 crore in the budget for development of arts and culture.

The three-day conference that concluded here on Friday urged the government to provide some help to the poor artistes in distress.

Addressing the meeting, CITU state president, Veeraiah, exhorted writers to take up the issues afflicting the poor for their stories or songs and awaken them to fight for their rights. He felt that writers and poets should have freedom to express their feelings and cautioned them against using the freedom for obscene and anarchic writings.

He stressed the need to identify the good among other artistes and writers. For instance, Annamayya rendered not only bhakti kirtans but also kirtans known for their social values, he pointed out.

He said that writers have a greater role to play to protect our culture in these days of globalisation that threatened to shake cultural foundations.

The conference re-elected M. Jaggaraju and R. Ramesh as president and secretary for another term. As many as 14 street-plays were staged in the specially erected Safdar Hashmi cultural state in PVR municipal boys high school here for the last three days.

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Raise issues of the poor, writers told

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