SHILLONG, Dec 4 � One of the worst riot-prone districts of India is dedicating its prime festivals for peace, calling it �26 funerals and the festival of peace� to promote peace and harmony amongst different ethnic tribes in Garo Hills in Meghalaya.
The Pingera Winter Festival, held annually in East Garo Hills is also being made a platform for appeal to bring peace and harmony between the ethnic Rabha and Garo community settled in different parts of Garo Hills and Assam.
In January this year, ethnic riots between the two communities took the lives of at least 26 people from both communities in different parts of Garo Hills and different districts of Assam bordering Meghalaya.
The festival has been named after the mythical bird (Pingera) from which the Garos believe to trace their ascendancy and is also a platform to remember those killed in the ethnic riot.
The two-day festival slated to begin from December 8 would be celebrated through December 9 in Williamnagar and is a riot of colours with cultural extravaganza and other fairs.
This year, apart from the cultural fairs, Church leaders of different denominations would hold a mass prayer meeting during the festival.
�The United Church Forum have confirmed their participation in the mass prayer meeting. We are also trying to get the involvement of the other religious groups in the prayer meeting,� Pravin Bakshi, Deputy Commissioner of East Garo Hills said.
He said that after this year, which witnessed ethnic riot between the two communities on January 1, should end on a positive note. �Hopefully we would end this year on a positive note after the horrible start of the New year,� Bakshi said.
In the ethnic riots, about 50,000 tribals from both Garo and Rabha communities were displaced in Meghalaya and Assam. Bakshi said 1,036 Rabha households were rehabilitated in Garo Hills so far.
Forty-one power tillers have been distributed to the Rabha community under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. During the festival the State Government would also sanction 220 fishery projects in the worst riot-affected Rabha villages in Garo Hills under the State Aquaculture Mission.
Bakshi added that altogether 1036 Rabha households of East Garo Hills were rehabilitated by February this year.
�This is an emotional initiative of the district administration and we would try to heal wounds of the past days through spiritual discourse and also fun in the way of carnival, cultural show and other entertainments... we want to move on,� Bakshi stated.