Mangaluru: The Veerarani Abbakka Utsav Committee (R) has informed that it will organise a separate ‘Abbakka Utsav’ on April 18 and 19 in Thokkottu, if the district administration does not mention the Committee’s name in its invitation.
It can be noted that the Dakshina Kannada district administration has been planning to organise an ‘Abbakka Utsav’ in Ullal on February 29 and March 1.
The members of the Abbakka Utsava committee have been striving hard to organise Abbakka Utsavas since from 1997. They have been organising the programme without financial support from the state government. When B S Yediyurappa became Chief Minister of Karnataka for the first time in 2008, he released Rs 25 lakhs to organise the Abbakka Utsav. Since then, the Abbakka Utsav has become a district celebration, and even the district administration has begun organising the programme under the guidance of the Abbakka Utsav Committee.
However, for the past two years, the district administration has been forming a separate committee to organise the utsav, a move that is now being questioned by the Committee.
Former MLA and committee president K Jayaram Shetty told reporters on Monday that the district administration ignored the committee’s contribution in organising the programme and did not mention the Committee while organising the programme.
“If the name of Abbakka Utsava Committee, Ullal is not mentioned in the invitation, the members will organise a separate Abbakka Utsav on April 18 and 19,” Shetty clarified.
When asked why the committee did not furnish documents showing their expenditure on the programme to the district administration (which is said to be the reason why the Abbakka Utsav committee was ignored in the first place), Shetty clarified that the allegation that the committee misappropriated government funds is far from the truth.
“We don’t want to interfere with the programme. As we had strived hard to organise this programme for the past two decades, we just wanted them to mention the committee’s name, or else we will organise a separate Utsav on April 18 and 19,” he said.
Committee members Dinakar Ullal, Hyder Parthippady, Sadanand Bangera, Dhanalakshmi Gatti, Ananda Asaigoli, Vasudev Rao, Hema U and others were present.
