BANGALORE: The Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) will release only 20 books at the 73rd annual three-day All-India Kannada Sahitya Sammelan to be held in Shimoga from December 20 owing to delay and uncertainty over the quantum of special grants promised by the Government.

President of the parishat Chandrashekhar Patil told presspersons here on Monday that a tradition had been set in Bidar wherein 72 books were released to match the 72nd convention in January 2006 there.

However, the KSP would now release only 20 books instead of 73 books. The other books would be released by March 2007.

The Government had released Rs. 1 crore for the convention. The parishat would utilise Rs. 35 lakh for publishing books and hand it over the rest of the amount to the Shimoga district unit of the parishat, Prof. Patil said.

He chose not to comment on the reported decision of writer U.R. Ananthamurthy, who is from Tirthahalli in Shimoga district, to keep away from the convention.

On comments in literary circles that the organisers had deliberately kept writers, critics and others from English academic backgrounds being kept out of the conference, Prof. Patil, who also taught English, said it was a "matter of interpretation."

Of the 72 annual conventions held so far, five were in Belgaum and it was after a gap of 30 years that the meet was being held in Shimoga.

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