Abbakka Utsava: Fund report not submitted

The report on the utilisation of funds for the Abbakka Utsava held in the year 2016-17 and 2017-18 has not been submitted to the government so far.

The Department of Kannada and Culture had released Rs 30 lakh in 2016-17 and the Utsava was held at Assaigoli in Mangaluru taluk. In 2017-18, the Department had released Rs 50 lakh. To organise the Utsava at Kolya, the government had released Rs 30 lakh and an additional 20 lakh was released to organise the Utsava and related programmes at Mysuru and New Delhi.

Unfortunately, the report on the expenditure incurred for organising the Utsava has not been submitted to the government for the last two years.

To an RTI reply, Kannada and Culture Department assistant director has said that the details on the expenditure were submitted to the auditors for the report. As the audit report was not received so far, the utilisation certificate has not been submitted so far.

The government has also released Rs 30 lakh to organise the Utsava in 2018-19. Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil in a recent meeting had promised to organise Abbakka Utsava in an organised and meaningful manner.

Cultural programmes by state-level artistes, seminar and other meaningful programmes would be organised as a part of Abbakka Utsava to make it more meaningful. Zilla Panchayat CEO Selvamani is the nodal officer for the Abbakka Utsava.

The concept of Abbakka Utsava was mooted in 1997 by Prof B A Viveka Rai, the first president of Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy. A meeting of then MLA B A Iddinabba was convened to chalk out the Utsava.

A committee was formed and Rani Abbakka Utsava was organised on November 8 and 9 in 1997 at Bharath High School grounds in Ullal Mastikatte. The Utsava was also organised in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2010 with the help of donors.

It was only since 2010-11 that the state government has been earmarking funds for the Utsava. A district-level committee headed by deputy commissioner was formed to look into the preparations for the Utsava.