On occasions like public festivals and national celebrations, local artistes should be given prominence. Instead of inviting artistes from other places, it is necessary to give prominence to the local artistes, said Deputy Commissioner D S Vishwanath.

A decision to this effect was taken at the public meeting organised at the office of the deputy commissioner, to discuss about the Kanaka Jayanthi celebrations here on Friday.

Drama troupe

When a proposal was made at the meeting to invite a drama troupe from Sanehalli to perform at the Kanaka Jayanthi celebrations, the deputy commissioner rejected the idea.
Instead, he said, the local drama troupes should be given prominence. Local artistes should be identified and given the responsibility to perform, he instructed.

When the assistant director of the Department of Kannada and Culture, Venkatachalapathi expressed that the local artistes sought honorarium for singing the Keerthanes of Kanakadasa, Vishwanath was also displeased with that. He replied that when the outstation artistes are paid, local artistes should also be paid on par.

It was wrong to assume  that the local artistes should not seek any honorarium. A consensus can be arrived at, with regard to the honorarium to the local artistes, after discussing with them, he suggested.

Singer Jannaghatta Krishnamurthy, who was present at the meeting, agreed to take up the responsibility of singing at the Kanaka Jayanthi celebrations.
Education institutes

Several people present at the meeting urged the deputy commissioner that all the schools and colleges should be instructed to celebrate Kanaka Jayanthi compulsorily, they urged.

The meeting decided to organise a concert of the Keerthanes of Kanakadasa, a drama presentation and a dance-drama, on the occasion.

Chief Executive Officer of the Zilla Panchayat S M Zulfikar Ulla, Tahsildar Venkatesh Murthy, Commissioner of the City Municipal Council Mahendra Kumar, officials Padmanabh and Shivalingaiah, leaders Prasad Babu, Neeli Jayashankar, Anche Ashwath, C Somashekhar, Madhusudhan Kumar, Venkatashivappa, Phalguna, Narayanaswamy and others were present at the meeting.