Mysuru: The State Government has planned to shift the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada (CESCK) to the Jayalakshmi Mansion. Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha on Saturday April 9 inspected the Mansion and held a preliminary meeting in this regard.
Simha told mediapersons that a proposal along with the DPR (Detailed Project Report) has been sent to the State Government for shifting CESCK to Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion from its current location at National Centre for History of Science (NCHS) of University of Mysore (UoM), Manasagangothri campus.
Pointing out that the over century-old Mansion, a heritage structure built by the erstwhile Mysore Maharajas over a century ago has turned dilapidated with passage of time, MP Pratap Simha said that during his recent meeting with Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan, in which Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai was also present, he had sought Rs. 25 Crore funds for repairs and restoration of the old structure. The DPR for the same has been prepared by a consultancy firm. But Pradhan then clarified that the Union Education Ministry can sanction funds only for CESCK activities and nd not for building and such other purposes and told him to seek funds from the State Government for restoration. Subsequently, he met Bommai a few days ago and sought funds, for which he replied in the affirmative, Simha said.
CESCK was cleared by the Union Government in 2011, three years after Kannada was accorded the ‘Classical Language’ status in 2008. CESCK functioned from CIIL on Hunsur Road for 9 years, before it moved to NCHS of
UoM in November 2020, where currently only a few staff are working and little activities are going on for making the Centre a fully operational one.
