With the objective of showcasing the heritage and culture of Mandya, and recollect its journey on the path of development, the three-day platinum jubilee celebrations of its formation as a district was inaugurated here on Friday by the former External Affairs Minister and veteran Congress leader S.M. Krishna.
The cultural programmes had been launched on February 16 and the exhibition was inaugurated on Thursday last.
Pramoda Devi Wadiyar, wife of late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar; M.H. Ambareesh, Housing Minister; and Nirmalananda Natha Swami of the Adichunchanagiri Mutt were present.
However, the inaugural function failed to draw the crowd.
The district administration expected at least 40,000 people to witness the programmes. Surprisingly, thousands of seats were empty at the stadium.
The situation was the same at the exhibition that had been organised at Government College for Boys (autonomous) grounds.
While several stalls remained unoccupied, owners/employees of a majority of stalls were requesting visitors to buy eatables. The stalls put up by the Department of Information and Public Relations and taluk administration too failed to showcase the past and present picture of Mandya. Portraits of Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, M. Visvesvaraya, S.M. Krishna, H.L. Nagegowda, M.H. Ambareesh, his wife Sumalatha, the former MP Ramya, Maitreya Gowda (actor, who filed a complaint against Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda’s son Karthik Gowda) and some other persons were on the display.
Although the number of visitors to the stalls was less, many of them expressed displeasure over the portraits and photographs displayed at the stalls as they had failed to portray the culture and heritage of the district.
