Prez will be 'Sri' in State invites

Heavy-sounding and lengthy honorifics, a must in government invitations, have been given a go-by this time in the invitations to the function for inaugurating the State’s second secretariat at the Suvarna Vidhana soudha near here.

Following the directions of President Pranab Mukherjee, the State government has replaced ‘High Excellency, Honourable’ and other such words with ‘Sri’ in the invitation cards that are being readied.

Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who is here to review the final arrangements being put in place for the inauguration of the Soudha on Sunday, told reporters that Pranab Mukherjee has instructed to do away with such words, thus setting a precedent of simplicity. The Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, being built at a cost of Rs 391 crore will be inaugurated on October 11.

“President Mukherjee was to deliver the inaugural address. However, he agreed to our request to address the joint session,” Shettar said.

He further said there’s no objection to changing the name of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha to SVS. Then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had decided on the name to mark the 50 years of the State. Suggestions have been made to rename it as SVS and there was no objection for it. Official notification would be issued soon, he added.