Mysore Dasara to have new features

Officials of Mysore district have initiated steps to finetune Mysore’s 10-day-long festival and also to make it more tourist-friendly.

Continuing with their efforts in this direction, officials, led by district in-charge minister S Suresh Kumar, heard suggestions from the general public on Wednesday. Deputy commissioner Harsh Gupta explained the steps already taken to bring about some changes to the traditional framework of the celebrations.

A taste of Mysore cuisine at all hotels, a single entry pass to tourist spots, introduction of children’s Dasara, national level sports for Dasara trophy, tourist-friendly police, SMS on Dasara and its programmes, hoardings to highlight programmes and training for Dasara staff are some of the features envisaged for this Dasara.

Visitors will have a taste of the famous ‘Mysore Pak’ as part of their meal in all hotels at reasonable rates. Discussion is on with local hoteliers to make available the special Dasara meals with this sweet meat and some ethnic foods of Mysore.

The ‘food mela’ organised at the Cauvery Area Development Authority grounds, near the Palace, will spread out on to Maharaja’s College ground too, a venue for cultural programmes. Cultural programmes at the palace will be restricted for the period from October 7 to October 15.

A ‘single entry pass’ for tourists to all the tourist spots with one pass has been planned while proposals are being looked into to inform the public of the various Dasara programmes.

While sports like hockey, skating and football are being contemplated at the national level for ‘Dasara sports trophy’, taluk-level sports and sports modelled on Kerala’s famous boat race and Mangalore’s ‘Kambla’ are under consideration. Yuva Dasara will be shifted back to the Manasa Gangotri Open Air Theatre and extend it to 7-8 days from six days.

The children’s Dasara planned for children’s participation will cover those of private institutions also. Traditional sports are planned for rural folks.

Dasara procession rehearsal will be conducted in the Palace premises covering Chamaraja Wadiyar Statue Circle to check local rush on the day of Vijaya Dasami procession.

Police Commissioner Sunil Agarwal said torchlight parade rehearsals will be conducted on October 15 and 16 and efforts would be made for direct relay of the programmes. Police and officials will be trained to be tourist-friendly and guide the people properly at all the places, he added.

Suresh Kumar said several suggestions had come for reducing the waiting period of the caparisoned elephant on the Vijaya Dasami day. The elephant is made to wait for over two hours with the 750-kg golden howdah on its back as it figures at the tail-end of the procession. The proposal mooted was to mount the howdah when the procession is on its midway, instead tying up the howdah when the procession begins.