CM spells out dos and don'ts for Dasara

Clean city, street lights, uninterrupted power supply and most importantly no compromise on quality.

These were the instructions from chief minister D V Sadananda Gowda at Dasara high-power committee meeting held at the office of deputy commissioner here on Thursday.

Reviewing the preparedness of various departments for ‘Nada Habba’ Dasara set to commence from September 28, the chief minister directed the authorities concerned to make the city flex free. Saying that he had the report of previous year where flex and hoardings marred the beauty of the heritage place, the chief minister said: “barring that of the government, other publicity materials should be removed with immediate effect from tomorrow (September 16). Street lights should be properly maintained and there should be no compromise when it comes to quality.”

Tough cookie

Sounding tough, he said local artistes should be given equal preference with outside artistes for the cultural programmes. “There are artistes who exert pressure for an opportunity to perform. In such cases, the authorities concerned should only consider deserving candidates,” CM asserted. He warned of interfering by cancelling the programmes of artistes who do not fit the bill, at the eleventh hour.

Obviously referring to the complaint of K R Nagar MLA Sa Ra Mahesh who was miffed over not being invited for Dasara related programmes, the chief minister who was not ready to buy such arguments asked the elected representatives in general to voluntarily involve themselves in making the event a success. Presenting his view, MP H Vishwanath alleged that the officers are already running the show even as the sub-committees including the elected representatives and others awaits official announcement from the government.

Permanent body

He advised the chief minister to kick start the preparations for Dasara 2012 coinciding with the culmination of the festivities of the current year. He also demanded for a permanent body for Dasara at least by designation. MLC Thontadarya too mooted a demand for permanent authority for the festival, besides taking measures to woo more flight operators to start operations from Mysore Airport.

Police commissioner Sunil Agarwal made a brief presentation on the security planned for the whole nine-days including Jamboo Savari. Using the satellite image of ‘jamboo savari’ route starting from Ambavilas Palace, the commissioner apprised the CM of the proposals sent to the higher ups for additional police personnel for both law and order and traffic fronts. He also brought it to the notice of Gowda that the police had a slogan ‘people friendly policing in Dasara 2010’ and is set to be replicated during the current year too.