Vijayawada, Jan 7 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today appealed to people to celebrate upcoming 'Pongal' festival in a way that it will create awareness about traditions and culture of the state and foster unity among people.
People of Andhra Pradesh celebrate Pongal as a big festival. Utilise this opportunity to celebrate it in a different way this year to create awareness among the people on traditions and culture of the state, and at the same time such celebrations create unity among the people, an official release quoted the CM as saying.
Naidu made the appeal through a teleconference from his camp at Kurnool.
He appealed to people to organise separate long-run competitions for the youth, women and farmers on the occasion.
'Pongal' or 'Makar Sankranti' falls on January 15.
He asked the officials to organise various competitions for animals, photo exhibitions on the success of government schemes and particularly management of water.
The CM also instructed the officials to prepare a 'water map' for all villages and display it for public viewing to create awareness on the availability of water in their village.
