Miscellany-Showcasing the hard work

Situated in the ground right opposite the Mysore Palace, the Mysore Exhibition is an added attraction for tourists during the festive season, also serving as a hangout for weekenders. The exhibition, that starts during Dasara and continues till January, offers variety of food stalls, amusement outlets, retail ventures and gaming stores. Various government departments also participate in the exhibition and showcase their achievements and upcoming programmes.  

During my recent visit to the exhibition ground, a stall put up by the Chamarajanagar Zilla Panchayat attracted my attention, both for its aesthetics and content. The entrance had a huge banyan tree on which hung a display board saying ‘GP One’. It explained a new programme that the Zilla Panchayat has embarked upon, providing services similar to Bangalore One and Mysore One at all gram panchayat offices now. As a part of their initiative to reach out to a greater number of people in the villages of Karnataka, the government has opened up GP One, wherein one can book railway and KSRTC bus tickets, pay their power bills, taxes and recharge their mobile phone currencies. 

Inside the stall, life-size models of various government programmes have been installed. For instance, a model of a borewell depth examiner machine, which provides data of the actual depth of the borewell sunk, along with the existing water level, is informative and striking. It was, in fact, installed to bring about transparency in the particular field. One can often read about alleged corruption in this arena. By displaying all the elements clearly, this model helps allay fears and doubts. The implementation of biometric attendance for government-run hostel students is another model that will catch your eye. Currently, biometric attendance is being used to monitor the regularity of  staff in both public and private offices. What caught my attention was the effort to record the attendance of hostel inmates using a biometric system. In fact, this system is also connected to the zilla panchayat office, so that real time data of the attendance can be accessed.

Watershed development programmes have always been a part of the government’s initiative to address various issues related to drought, soil erosion etc. A detailed model on the same displays all the work that has been done till now. Similarly, their initiative to improve tenth standard results is displayed through a charming classroom model. Next to it is a model of a women self-help group initiative. Right next it, you can find a model of the sanitation programme.

In this stall, you can also watch videos on various developmental initiatives of the district and the government’s attempts to find solutions to various administrative challenges by employing digital interventions. One of the most bizarre set-ups in this stall is a model depicting cemetery development in the district. Though it has an important place in one’s individual as well as social life, death isn’t generally used as a subject matter in public spaces. But with fragmented villages, rising tensions due to different castes, rising real estate prices and shrinking land spaces, cemeteries often become the centre of clashes in villages. The district administration then decided to intervene and provided necessary facilities in the cemeteries of all villages, which has been depicted here. If nothing else, a visitor to this stall can at least appreciate the content, aesthetics and the quality of execution.