Amritisar, Jan 12: Vice President Hamid Ansari will inaugurate the fourteenth National Youth Festival here today.

It is the first time that National Youth Festival would be held in Punjab till January 16.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will preside over the function. Dr. M. S. Gill, Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports and Gulzar Singh Ranike, Sports Minister, Punjab , will be the ''Guests of Honour'' at the function.

About 4000 young persons from all States and UTs are expected to participate in the festival.

The festival is organised every year from January 12 to 16. January 12 being the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda is observed as National Youth Day.

On the occasion, the Vice President will give away National Youth Awards and Awards to the National Youth Outstanding Clubs.

Department of Youth Affairs, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports presents National Youth awards every year to motivate young persons to achieve excellence in the field of national service and to encourage them to develop a sense of responsibility to their community and to improve their own potential as good citizens and young leaders.

The Award consists of a silver medal, a certificate and a cash prize.

The Government has also doubled award money for individual awardees from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 40,000 and for voluntary organizations from Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 2 lakhs.

During the five-day festival, there will be competitive events in 16 individual items and two group items.

In addition to this a young Artists Camp, Yuva Kriti and an Adventure Festival will be organised by the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan that functions under the aegis of the Department of Youth Affairs.

The National Service Scheme will also organise a National Youth Convention and a lecture series ''Suvichar''.

In the year 1995, the First National Youth Festival was successfully held at Bhopal.

The venues where these festivals were subsequently successfully held are Kolkata (West Bengal) in 1996, Ahmedabad(Gujrat) in 1997 ,Chennai(Tamil Nadu) in 1998 ,Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) in 1999, Gandhinagar (Gujarat) in 2000, Hissar (Haryana) in 2002 ,Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) in 2003 ,Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) in 2004 ,Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) in 2005 ,Patna(Bihar) in 2006 , Pune (Maharashtra) in 2007 and Chennai (Tamil Nadu)in 2008. (ANI)