JK’s rich cultural heritage it’s biggest asset: Abid Rasheed

Jammu, Feb 14: All heritage sites and other protected monuments must be renovated and given facelift on mission mode while ensuring that their aesthetics and sanctity are not compromised with. The remarks were given by Secretary Culture, Dr Syed Abid Rashid Shah while chairing a meeting to review works of various departments under his ambit at the Civil Secretariat Tuesday.
Secretary Culture informed that the government is committed to reviving the Culture Department on a massive scale for bringing about a cultural renaissance in the union territory.
He laid great emphasis on promoting and giving due recognition and operating to Abhinav Theatre, Kala Kendra Jammu and Tagore Hall in Kashmir. These places have been nerve centres of J&K cultural space and should be throbbing with cultural activities throughout the year, he stressed.
He urged the officers to connect to the locals as well as the visitors with our heritage through social media. The departments are working well to preserve our shared treasures and the same must be shared with the public to generate their curiosity and interest, he emphasised.
Over the course of the meeting, Dr Abid discussed strategies to make the department vibrant and to connect more with the youth.
Speaking to representatives of Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Arts Culture & Languages, the Secretary said, we have rich and vibrant cultures in Jammu & Kashmir. We need to organise events to give a new lease of life to them and attract youth towards it.
He also directed respective officers to meditate on and submit a feasibility report on initiating Cultural Apprenticeship in Traditional Artforms programme.
He made it clear that the Department of Libraries must prioritise its services for youngsters and students of remote areas of J&K and passed necessary directions for speeding up the process of digitisation of government libraries.
He was informed that the Government has identified 35 monuments and sites across the UT for restoration. He took a review of the present status of each of these sites through a powerpoint presentation.
He also supported the idea of collaborations with other premier institutes and bodies from all over India to give fillip and to generate public interest in cultural activities.
He noted the progress under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav activities while operational and organisational issues of the Departments were discussed by him. Issues pertaining to human resource management and policies, establishment of culture centres and draft recruitment policy were also discussed in the meeting.
He directed the officers to create and submit calendar of promotional activities to be organised in the coming months. He also called for identifying and imparting various upskilling courses for the human resources of the department.
The departments include Department of Archives, Archaeology & Museums; Department of Libraries & Research; Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Arts Culture & Languages and Kala Kendra Jammu.
The meeting was attended by Special Secretary, Trishala Kumari; Director Libraries & Research, M Rafi; Additional Secretary, Sanjeev Rana; Additional Secretary, Vishwajeet; Deputy Secretary Culture, Abdul Qyume; Assistant Director, Dr Sangeeta Sharma.
Deputy Director Archives, Mushtaq Ahmed Beigh and Assistant Law Officer, Jehangir participated through video conference.