JAGIROAD, Jan 18 � The Assam Government has approached the UNESCO for declaring the historic �Junbeel Mela� in Morigaon district as a Heritage Festival and Heritage Site, reports PTI.
District Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Kumar told PTI today that Chief Secretary Jitesh Khosla has written to the UNESCO to accord the special status to the Mela.
Kumar said the government had sought the special status as Junbeel Mela was �the rarest of the rarest festivals� where both tribals and non-tribals of Assam and Meghalaya practise a barter system for exchanging agricultural produce in a festive manner at the end of the Magh Bihu period.
The traditional barter system of exchanging agricultural products by both the hills and plains tribal people of Assam and Meghalaya is still practised during the Mela.
At the concluding function of the Mela today the Gorbha king collected the token royal taxes from 14 of the then kingdoms of Assam in Morigaon, Nagaon and Karbi Anglong districts and parts of Meghalaya.
