Civic honour for Urs awardee Moideen on Sept 15: Ivan

Former minister B A Moideen Bava (in pic), who was conferred D Devaraj Urs Award by the state government during the valediction of the birth centenary of Urs, will be accorded a civic honour on September 15.

The programme will be held at Town Hall at 3.30 pm.

MLC and Chief Whip of the state government in Legislative Council Ivan D’Souza, who announced this at his office on Saturday, said, “Health and Family Welfare Minister K R Ramesh Kumar will deliver the felicitation address, while Mayor K Harinath will preside over the ceremony. Religious heads from different faiths, including Khazis of Dakshina Kannada district Alhaj Thwaka Ahmed Musliyar and Alhaj Assayed Fazal Kohamma Tanhal, Sri Adhichunchanagiri Mutt Mangaluru branch seer Sri Dharmapalanatha Swami and Rev Father Denis Moras Prabhu of Mangaluru diocese, will be the special invitees.”

D’Souza said, “While Urs is credited for bringing in land reforms in the state, Moideen, as a minister in the same Cabinet, ensured that the reforms were implemented in the undivided Dakshina Kannada district. Although Moideen has retired from active politics and is involved in educational institutions, he deserves to be honoured for being a recipient of the Urs award.”

Accordingly, three sub-committees were formed to chalk out the programmes associated with the ceremony.

Earlier, D’Souza, along with Mangaluru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) chairman Ibrahim Kodijal, Mayor K Harinath, Congress leader S M Rasheed Haji and Chief Whip in MCC M Shashidhar Hegde released publicity materials like invitations and posters related to civic honour.

Kateel issue
Quoting a report in newspaper related to police arresting a suspect for posting a derogatory Facebook post on Goddess Durga Parameshwari the deity of Kateel temple, D’Souza offered to extend all possible help from the government, as the youth in question has acted ‘at the behest of people abroad with vested interests’. “The cooperation of the Central government is also essential and we will apprise the chief minister too in this regard,” he added.

D’Souza said, “I have already spoken to IGP (Western range) Arun Chakravarthy and Police Commissioner M Chandra Sekhar.”