Amruta Mahotsav: Political power rules sub-committees

Preparations have begun to celebrate the Amrita Mahotsava of Mandya district in a grand manner. With the government releasing Rs two crore for the celebrations, meetings were held and committees have been formed. However, as the majority of the committee members have a political background, and this has not gone down well with the people of the district.

A High level Committee was constituted with 12 sub-committees to execute the works for the three-day celebrations to be held in the last week of December. Priority has been given only to those with the political background in the sub-committees, which would concentrate on welcome, cultural, souvenir, expo, publicity, food, cleanliness, dais, sports, workshops, housing and transport aspects, and the smooth conduct of the programmes.

Though it is understandable to have those with political background in the welcome committee, the members of other committees have no connection with the activities.
For example, the cultural committee only has leaders of political parties, except for actors Sumalatha and S Narayan, who are from the film industry.

There are many sports persons in the district with national and international fame, but ironically no one has been considered for the Sports sub-committee. Also, the president posts of all the sub-committees have been adorned by politicians.

Only the Souvenir sub-committee, which is the least favoured, has litterateurs of the district as members. Karnataka Janashakti Samiti member Lakshman Cheeranahalli opined that more importance should be given for the development of the district than the celebrations. “Such programmes are being organised by the leaders to provide an opportunity for their supporters to be selected as the committee members, which do not benefit the common man in any way,” he said.