State companies withdraw support for Divali Nagar

Sev­er­al state-con­trolled com­pa­nies have with­drawn their sup­port for this year’s Di­vali Na­gar, with the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) ap­peal­ing to the Gov­ern­ment for fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to stage the an­nu­al cel­e­bra­tions.

NCIC pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo told Guardian Me­dia on Mon­day that Caribbean Air­lines, the Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board and bmo­bile would not par­tic­i­pate this year.

“We are not get­ting any sup­port from some of the state en­ter­pris­es. B-Mo­bile not on board with us this year. We're not sure what is the rea­son why they're not on board with us,” he said.

Man­ga­roo said the Na­gar, which opens on Oc­to­ber 30, was ex­pect­ed to cost about $5 mil­lion. The NCIC re­ceived $500,000 from the Gov­ern­ment in May to­wards last year’s cel­e­bra­tions.

He said all com­mer­cial spaces had been booked, and First Cit­i­zens Bank would re­turn as a par­tic­i­pant.

This year’s theme is “Vive­ka – Dis­cern­ing Truth in the Age of AI”, fo­cus­ing on dis­tin­guish­ing truth from mis­in­for­ma­tion.

The Youth Champ and dance com­pe­ti­tions will re­turn af­ter be­ing sus­pend­ed be­fore the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic. New York band Gem­i­ni Brass will per­form on No­vem­ber 1, and a light show is planned, but there will be no fire­works.

The NCIC has in­vit­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin to the fi­nal night on No­vem­ber 7.

Guyana’s pres­i­dent, who was ex­pect­ed to at­tend as chief guest, will be rep­re­sent­ed by the Speak­er of the Na­tion­al As­sem­bly be­cause of King Charles’s state vis­it to the Unit­ed King­dom on Oc­to­ber 29 and 30.

The NCIC is al­so mak­ing arrange­ments to ac­com­mo­date pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school stu­dents on dates to be an­nounced.