Gandhi Bhavans announced in 2016 budget, handed over to district admins

With no separate fund allocation for maintenance, district admins to make them self-sustained.

Mysuru: Even as Sarvodaya Divas was observed on January 30, to mark the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, 13 Gandhi Bhavans, among those announced for all districts in the 2016 State budget, are completed, including one in Mysuru.

Officials of the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) implemented the projects. There is no separate allocation of funds by the State government for their maintenance. So, they have been handed over to the respective district administrations, as per a Government order, to make them self-sustained, but with specific conditions.

On March 18, 2016, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced to build ‘Gandhi Bhavan’ at a cost of Rs 3 crore in each district in two years, to propagate the ideologies of Mahatma Gandhi, in his budget speech.

Gandhi Bhavans built in Ballari, Belagavi, Davanagere, Hassan, Kodagu, Shivamogga, Vijayapura, Chamarajanagar, Haveri, Chikkaballapura, and Dharwad were handed over to the respective district administrations in the first phase. 

The Chief Minister virtually inaugurated the Gandhi Bhavan built on one acre of land on Bannur Road, in Mysuru, on July 19, 2025, during a beneficiaries convention. 

Later, as per the Government order of August 21, 2025, the officials of DIPR handed over the building on August 25, 2028, to the Mysuru district administration. The building in Mandya was inaugurated on January 26 and it has been handed over to Mandya District Administration. 

Conditions

The Gandhi Bhavans are handed over with specific conditions, to utilise them mainly to propagate the ideologies and philosophies of Gandhi. In order to maintain them, including appointment of staff, managing their salaries; payment of bills like electricity bill; the district administration should fix the rent and give them to different departments to hold government programmes and cultural events. 

Gandhi Bhavan in Mysuru, built on a 100X100 feet plot, next to the DC's office complex on Bannur Road already has a photo gallery, depicting the life, values and works of Gandhi.

There are separate rooms for the library, a training centre, meeting hall, and an auditorium with a capacity to accommodate 100 people. There is a plan to develop a small lawn and to install statues of Gandhi there. But, except for the building, there is no infrastructure or furniture including seats in auditorium or racks for library and so far no activity is taken up there. 

The Gandhi Bhavan is meant to highlight Gandhian thoughts, values, his contributions to freedom struggle, including his satyagraha; his simple life; his encouragement to cottage industries; his support to Dalits, backward class communities, women and children. So, they are supposed to hold round the year activities, including trainings and seminars on these lines. 

Experts felt that the State Government should have allotted separate funds for furnishing the Gandhi Bhavans; and sanctioned a corpus funds for them to hold Gandhi centric activities round the year. 

Box:

When contacted, DC G Lakshmikanth Reddy informed that besides programmes to propagate Gandhi's ideologies, they are planning to utilise the Bhavan to host Government programmes like Jayanthis-birth anniversaries, in order to make the Bhavan self-sustained. It will be fully functional soon, he said.