Bengaluru: The ten-day Mysuru Dasara festival, which has been low key for a few years owing to the drought, will be organised on a grand-scale this year thanks to the good monsoon that has brought heavy rain across the state.
Making the announcement, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy who was chairing a preliminary meeting on the Dasara festivities here on Wednesday, said there was no dearth of funds to celebrate the Nada Habba this year.
"We plan to make the Dasara festival a global brand to attract tourists from all over the world. The festival was low-key due to drought over the last few years. But this time the rains have been widespread and Cauvery water has been released to neighbouring Tamil Nadu. So now the Rs 7 crore pending from last year's festival will be used to make it a grand affair," he added.
The CM instructed officials of Mysuru district to set up committees under the chairmanship of local legislators and Ministers to ensure that the festival was organised without any hiccups. "I know it is too early to hold a preliminary meeting, but we are holding it on the request of Higher Education Minister, G T Deve Gowda," he explained.
Telling officials that they must take steps to avoid confusion over the distribution of passes, Mr Kumaraswamy advised them to add new programmes to make Dasara even more colourful than usual and take legislators into confidence before chalking them out.
