Copious rains has not only brought smiles on the faces of farmers, but also the district administration, which is confident in attracting more number of people for ‘Nada Habba’ Dasara this year. Navaratri (Dasara) is scheduled to start on October 6 and will culminate on October 14 with Jamboo Savari.
Presiding over the Dasara preliminary meeting at her office on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner C Shikha said that with the district witnessing a bounty of rainfall, people will be looking at Mysore, and the programmes should be made further attractive.
She instructed deputy special officers (district officers of different departments) to prepare a draft of popular programmes, equally emphasising on improving the existing programmes and introducing newer events to make it a success.
The focus should be on attracting the weekend crowd from Bangalore that has Mysore on their itinerary. Besides, apart from Ambavilas Palace the hub of attraction during Dasara, officers should also think on making other venues too equally attractive by hosting popular programmes. The deputy commissioner was of the opinion that crowds should not be centralised at one place, as “Dasara should truly be a melange of attractions”.
She also said that instead of offering varieties of food of different States on dedicated days, it should be extended to all the days. This will enable people get the taste of different delicacies throughout the festival.
Also, Dasara website, the only link between the event and people outside, should be launched at least a month in advance with schedules and programmes for the benefit of the people. All the sub-committees must look at sponsors and refer the same to the dedicated sub-committee.
The deputy commissioner also directed the officers not to compromise on health and hygiene, besides the quality of food served in hotels, with huge conglomeration of people expected during the festival.
Excise Deputy Commissioner Y Manjunath explained that Yuva Dasara was the crowd puller during the event. He reasoned that, as Yuva Dasara was dropped owing to drought previous year, there was also a dip in revenue in the form of sponsorship by Rs 15 lakh in 2012. In the year 2012, a total of Rs 46 lakh was collected in the form of sponsorship against Rs 61 lakh in 2011.
It was also discussed on fixing a ‘muhurat’ for ‘Gajapayana’, the march of first batch of elephants participating in Jamboo Savari, preference to local artistes among other topics.