Seven Zonal Cultural Centres to promote Indian Culture

To protect, promote & preserve various forms of folk art and culture throughout the country including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand & Odisha, the Government of India has set up seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with headquarters at Patiala, Nagpur, Udaipur, Prayagraj, Kolkata, Dimapur and Thanjavur. These ZCCs organize various cultural activities & programmes on regular basis all over the country.

At national level from 2015 till date, seven (7) Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsavs (RSMs) have been organized wherein artists of all the States including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand & Odisha have been provided platform to perform. Such artists would be provided opportunities to perform in RSMs whenever planned. Chhattisgarh is a member State of South Central Zone Cultural Centre (SCZCC), Nagpur who has planned to showcase the culture of Chhattisgarh in their various programmes like Lok Kala Darshan, Lok Nrutya Bharat Bharati, Tribal Dance Festival, Folk Theater Festival, Lok Gyan Paramapara etc.

Odisha & Jharkhand are the member States of Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC), Kolkata who plan to showcase the culture of these two States in their several district level programmes, Multilingual Theatre Festival, Guru Shishya Parampara Scheme, Yatra Mahotsav as well as various workshops on folk painting, folk craft and dance forms.

This information was given by Union Minister of State (I/C) for Culture & Tourism, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.