Mysuru: The state government, as a mark of respect to 111-year-old Siddaganga Seer Shivakumara Swamiji who passed away on Monday, January 21, declared holiday to all schools and colleges across Karnataka on Tuesday but surprisingly Demonstration School in Mysuru which is a constituent unit of the Regional Institute of Education in Mysuru functioned as usual. Many parents were irked by the school management’s decision.
Yagnamurthy Sreekanth, Principal of Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru said, “Actually it is a central government organisation and not state government. It is closed only if central government declares holiday. It is a centrally funded institution. We are not receiving any funds from the state. Why should we close? I can speak to anybody including deputy commissioner or anybody for that matter. We strictly go by norms. State government is different from central government. We are centrally funded and we are responsible to the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development and not the state.”
“As a mark of respect to Swamiji, we kept his photographs in both the college and school and observed two minutes silence and spoke about Swamiji’s contribution”, added Sreekanth.
When this was brought to the notice of Deputy Commissioner Abhiram Sankar, he said, “They should have observed the holiday. I will speak to the authorities concerned in this regard and see that such things do not reccur. DDPI Mamatha also assured of speaking to the authorities concerned.
