Gurugram: The Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana government has introduced a bill to constitute a statutory authority to celebrate International Gita Mahotsav in a “proper and cogent manner”.
The Haryana Antarrashtriya Gita Jayanti Mela Authority Bill, 2024, seeks to provide better facilities for pilgrims and visitors at the festival, which is held annually in Kurukshetra since 2016 to disseminate the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.
The authority, the bill proposed, would organise cultural and educational seminars, workshops, fairs, exhibitions, and conferences on the Bhagavad Gita at the festival.
Haryana Urban Local Bodies Minister Kamal Gupta introduced the bill in the assembly Thursday.
“The state government has felt the necessity for the establishment and constitution of a statutory authority for the management, regulation, and organising the Antarrashtriya Gita Mahotsav in a proper and cogent manner as well as to provide better facilities to pilgrims and visitors during the Mahotsav period,” said a government statement.
The Haryana government established the Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB) on 1 August 1968 to safeguard the ancient heritage of Kurukshetra, said the statement. It added that the state government, jointly with the KDB, has been organising the International Gita Mahotsav since 2016.
What bill proposes
The authority, which will be a body corporate and have perpetual succession and a common seal, will be able to hold and dispose of both movable and immovable property and enter into contracts. It will have funding from the government via fees, charges, tolls, and surcharges to organise festivals across India or the world.
The Haryana chief minister will be the authority’s chairperson. The minister in charge of the urban local bodies department will be the senior vice-chairperson. The state will nominate an eminent and distinguished person as its vice chairperson.
The authority ex-officio members will include the administrative secretaries of the finance, health, public works, urban local bodies, and information and public relations departments and the director general of police (DGP) or an officer at or above the additional DG-rank nominated by the DGP, the Kurukshetra deputy commissioner and the Kurukshetra University vice-chancellor. Five eminent and distinguished persons, nominated by the state government, will also be its members.
The CEO, an IAS officer with at least five years of experience, will be the member secretary. The CEO, ‘subject to the directions, control, and supervision of the authority’, shall monitor all arrangements.
The draft bill is up on the National eVidhan Application (NeVA) portal of the Haryana assembly.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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