Ayodhya's Deepostav, declared as an annual state event

Lucknow:The Deepostav programme of Ayodhya during Diwali festival, which has turned into an international event for the third successive year, has been now made a state level function.

Earlier, the state tourism department had been spending funds for the Deepostav programme in Ayodhya but now the Yogi Adityanath government on Tuesday, made it a state level event as now the government will directly fund the function through the district.The decision to this was taken in a state cabinet meeting here on Tuesday.

Briefing mediapersons here, state government spokesperson Srikant Sharma said that  from this year, the Deepostav function would be a state government affair when it was organised by the state tourism department in the past two years.

" The government has sanctioned Rs 133 crore for his year's Deepostav programme where over 5.51 lakh diyas would be lightened on October 26," he said.

With turning the Deepostav programme a state sponsored programme, the Chief Minister has also announced that all the money spent in the event would be thoroughly audited as per the norms.

Meanwhile, UP government has made elaborate arrangements for the Deepostav this time when Yogi Adityanath would grace the occasion on October 26.  Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji is likely to be the chief guest on the occasion.(UNI)