Girish Karnad to inaugurate Mysore Dasara

Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad will inaugurate the Mysore Dasara celebrat-ions this year, which are sch-eduled to begin on September 25, 2014, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who chaired the high-level committee meeting on Dasara, announced here on Saturday.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, he said, Mysore district in-charge minister V Srinivasa Prasad would meet Karnad very soon and extend him a formal invitation on behalf of the committee and state government.

The committee decided to celebrate Mysore Dasara with great fervour this year and the state government would release Rs 12 crore for the same, he said.

In 2013, the Mysore Dasara festival was inaugurated by another Jnanpith awardee Chandrashekara Kambara. He also announced that the Dasara celebrations would be plastic-free from this year. The government would soon issue orders banning the use of plastic in Mysore, he said.

In order to ensure that people visiting Mysore during the Dasara festival do not face the hassle of buying tickets at the tourist destinations, the government will issue a sin-gle pass/ticket for their convenience on a daily basis or for a period of 10 days, Siddaramaiah said.

The passes will be valid for visiting the Mysore Palace, Mysore Zoo, Bannimantap, Chamundi Hills, Jaganmohan Palace among others.

“The single ticket will help people enjoy the fest-ivities without having to take the trouble of procuring tickets at every location,” said Siddaramaiah.

The Dasara committee also asked the chief minister to release an additional Rs 5 crore for the festival. An amount of Rs 1.75 crore was sought for organising sports events during the Dasara festivities.

Stating that there will be no shortage of funds for the festival, the chief minister said that the Mysore Urban Development Authority would asphalt the roads and lay concrete on the footpath for the smooth flow of the Dasara procession.

Siddaramaiah directed chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee to call a meeting of all departments to ensure that the stalls of departments at the Dasara exhibition are ready on the day of the inauguration itself.

The committee also decided to exempt vehicles entering Mysore city from paying an entry tax for a period of two months from September 15.

The cultural programmes will also be organised in Mandya and Chamarajanagar during the 10-day celebrations, Siddaramaiah added.