Cultural ambassadors start with Dasara campaign from city

Four vehicles with 32 artistes to extend invitation to all districts

In all four vehicles each comprising eight artistes left Mysore towards their destinations, from Kote Anjaneya Swamy Temple premises at Mysore Palace North Gate.

The troupes have been given their itinerary and will visit all the districts and taluk centres in the six days. The first troupe will pass through Mysore, Kodagu, Mangalore, Udupi, Karwar, Belgaum, Dharwad, Hubli, Haveri, Davangere, Chitradurga, Hassan and Tumkur districts.

The second team will visit Mysore, Chamarajangar, Mandya, Ramanagar, Kanakapura, Bangalore rural and urban, Kolar, Chikkaballapura and Tumkur districts. The third team will visit Mysore, Chikkamagalur, Shimoga, Haveri, Gadag, Bagalkot, Hampi, Hospet, Chitradurga, Hiriyur, Nagamangala, Pandavapura and other places. The fourth team will visit Bannur, Somanathapura, T Narsipur, Nanjangud, Suttur, Varuna, Yelwal, Bilikere, K R Nagar, Chunchanakatte, Saligrama, Bettadapura, Periyapatna, Hunsur, H D Kote, Antarasanthe, Beechanahalli, Sargur, Hampapura, Madapura, Jayapura, Srirampura.

Inaugural function

Dasara jumbos including howdah elephant Balarama added gaiety to the inaugural function with the cultural troupes performing dollu kunita, veeragase, pooja kunita, beesu kamsale and tamate  in the front.

Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas who is also the chairman of Dasara Executive Committee said the troupes will visit the districts only to invite the people of that parts to take part in the festival. The onus is on the Deputy Commissioners of the respective districts to make it a success. Ramdas said website has been launched to attract national and international tourists.

Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta, Police Commissioner Sunil Agarwal, Additional Deputy Commissioner Dr C J Betsurmath, Deputy Mayor Pushpalatha Jagannath, Chairman, Karnataka Exhibition Authority, B P Manjunath and others were present.

Mayor vents ire

Post flagging off of the jatha, high drama was witnessed with Mayor Sandesh Swamy venting ire over the authorities concerned accusing the latter of neglecting him in regard to Dasara related programmes./

Sandesh Swamy alleged that he had been not invited for the programme and is put in a fix with media reports that Mayor has stayed away from Dasara related programmes.

Following this, Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta directed additional DC to inform district control room to henceforth intimate all the officers including Mayor about Dasara schedule daily, thus pulling down the curtains over what could have led to a major controversy. In the previous years too, the then Mayors had similar complaints.