Dwelling on the moral aspect of heritage conservation, French Ambassador to India François Richier said preserving heritage is a natural duty, at the inauguration of the Pondicherry Heritage Festival 2015 held at Gandhi Thidal on Friday.
“It is our duty to transmit our heritage to future generations. It is not something given to be destroyed,” said Mr. Richier.
The inauguration was attended by actor Revathi, Tourism Minister P. Rajavelu, Art and Culture Minister T. Thiagarajan, MLA K. Lakshminarayanan, French Consul General Philippe Janvier-Kamiyama and Convener of the Puducherry chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage M.K. Sayeekumari.
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Kakoli Banerjee from the residents group People for Pondicherry’s Heritage said that she wished for Puducherry to be listed among world heritage cities. Ms. Banerjee thanked the government for its promise to reconstruct the Mairie building and restore the Old Court complex.
Mr. Lakshminarayanan said that the town must look at attracting visitors with ‘value tourism.’
Ministers Mr. Thiagarajan and Mr. Rajavelu spoke.
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The inauguration programme began with the invitees drumming the murasu marking the official launch, followed by recitation of songs of poet Bharathiar by Aneesh Raghavan. Young poet Sathya from the Baby Sarah orphanage recited her poem urging residents to take care of Puducherry.
Earlier in the day, the line-up of events of the festival got off to a grand start with a sitar recital by Soham Munim. The first discussion of the festival was on ‘Cultivating a Sense of History and Identity Through Collective Events’ with heritage activist S. Muthiah, founder of Dakshinachitra Deborah Thiagarajan and journalist Vincent D’Souza.
The event is being organised by People for Pondicherry’s Heritage, INTACH Puducherry and NGO PondyCAN, and supported by almost all major establishments and government.