Kathmandu, Jan. 10 : On the occasion of the 279th Prithvi Jayanti and National Unity Day, Radio Nepal and Nepal Television jointly organised a nationwide Fulbari Song Festival here today.

Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, inaugurating the song festival, said that this kind of programme would be fruitful in fostering goodwill, peace, tolerance and unity in the nation.

Emphasising the need for national broadcasters and the mass media to be sensitive so as to discourage the tendency to adversely affect nationalism, Minister Gupta said that it was necessary to defeat those seeking to hurt democracy and the parliamentary system.

Noting that the social fabric existing since time immemorial should not be ruptured, he said new endeavour had to be made for mutual harmony and affection and social coordination.

On the occasion, Minister for Information and Communications Gupta released the “Qualitative audience survey report for the Rai Bantawa and eastern Tharu languages”.

Presiding over the function, chairman of Radio Nepal Board of Directors and secretary at the Ministry of Information and Communications Shriram Paudel said that the exhortations of Prithvi Narayan Shah were equally relevant even today and no class should be conceited about its communal identity.

Radio Nepal executive director Shailendra Raj Sharma said that the Fulbari programme has played a significant role in uniting peoples of various castes and creeds speaking various languages.

General Manager of Nepal Television Durga Nath Sharma said the distinct characteristics of the Nepalese is unity in diversity and the Fulbari song programme would help consolidate unity among various sections.

Thirty-one troupes singing in 20 languages of the Kingdom of Nepal are scheduled to present their songs at the festival.