Preparations for Dasara on in full swing

Mysore, Aug 26: The preparations for the famous Mysore Dasara festivities would commence from September six with the district administration bringing elephants from the Veerahoshalli camp in Nagarahole National Park, District In-charge Minister G T Deve Gowda said. Talking to newspersons yesterday after the official level meeting of Dasara Festival Committee, he said as per the traditional process the administration would welcome the first batch of six elephants with a traditional 'puja'. The pachyderms would arrive here on September nine. The officials had been asked to enlist the programmes for the conduct of Dasara festivities in advance and kep everything ready for inauguration on October 12, he said.

Various cultural and other tourism promotion programmes would also be conducted in the neighbouring districts of Mandya, Chamarajanagara, Kodagu, Hassan during the ten-day festival.

A high-power committee meeting headed by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy would be held shortly in Bangalore to discuss the ways means of the programmes. The number of sub-committees had been reduced to nine from 14, he added.

The government had sanctioned Rs 80 lakh for the festival and another Rs 50 lakh would be raised from the issuance of gold cards for the festival's private sponsors, who had been supporting it for the last few years, he added.

UNI