State to adopt Devaraj Urs' birthplace

A high-powered committee gave its in-principle approval on Monday to various programmes  across the State as part of former chief minister Devaraj Urs’ birth centenary celebrations.

A sum of Rs 10 crore has been set aside for the purpose.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who chaired the meeting in Bengaluru on Monday, said the government had decided to adopt Urs’ birthplace Kallahalli in Hunsur taluk of Mysuru district. Urs’ daughter Bharathi Urs, who is also part of the committee, suggested that Kallahalli, which also houses a 2,500-year-old Jain basadi, could be developed as a heritage village.

On August 20, the day Urs was born, the government will host an annual Devaraj Urs Award ceremony in Hunsur. Siddaramaiah will also lay the foundation stone for the Rs five-crore Devaraj Urs Bhavan on a two-acre plot in Hunsur. The valedictory ceremony will be held in Bengaluru on August 20 next year.

Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya said the committee had given its approval for proposals, including the release of a stamp to mark the celebrations, and also to accord the Karnataka Ratna award to Urs, posthumously.

While Doordarshan will be asked to make a short film on Urs, arrangements will be made to exhibit albums of some of his rare photographs, apart from tableau, across the State. It was also suggested to name one of the proposed trifurcated universities of the existing Bangalore University after Urs.