Mangaluru: The Kannada Rajyothsava was celebrated with pomp and gaiety at the Nehru Maidan here on Thursday, November 1. As many as 18 achievers from different fields, including V4’s Lakshman Kunder and John Chandran, were conferred with this year’s district-level Rajyotsava award.
Addressing the gathering, district in-charge minister U T Khader called upon Kannadigas to question themselves if they have become mere ‘November Kannadigas’. “We do celebrate Kannada Rajyothsava in a very grand manner across the state. But, all our love for Kannada somewhere remains restricted only for November 1st. This somewhere has made us mere November Kannadigas,” he said adding that love for language and the state must become a part of our lives and not a celebration of just one day.
Speaking about various developmental programmes taken up in the state he said that 32 ‘gramas’ (villages) of the Dakshina Kannada district have been shortlisted for the CM’s Gram Vikas Yojana. Under this scheme, Rs 32 crores have been earmarked and a total of Rs 11.80 lakhs have been released.
MLC Ivan D’Souza, Mangaluru South MLA Vedavyas Kamath and Dakshina Kannada Zilla Kannada Sahithya Parishat President Pradeep Kumar Kalkura were among those present.
Awardees
The 18 people who were conferred the district level Rajyotsava award by the Dakshina Kannada district administration are Kumar Pernaje (Agriculture), Shekhar Bhandary (Literature), Bondala Sachidananda Shetty (Education), P M Hasanabba Moodbidri (Music), Dinakar Indaje (Journalism), Lakshman Kunder (Journalism), Vidwan Shravan Ullal (Dance), Nagesh A (Sports), Mohammed Shamil Arshad (Sports), John Chandran (Fine Arts), Sadashiva Amin (Fine Arts), Chandrashekhar Nanil (Social Service), Dr I Shashikanth Jain (Social Service), Shankar B Shetty Virar (Social Service), Kurnad Shivanna Acharya (Folk), Gopal Shibaroor (Folk), Dr Dinesh Kadam (Medicine) and Dr Manorama Rao (Medicine).
March Past in Kannada
For the first time, march past commands were given in Kannada. SP Ravikanthe Gowda had started the same in Belagavi in 2016 and the format was followed for the first time in Dakshina Kannada today.
