Karnataka - Mangalore   

Low turnout at youth festival

Staff Correspondent

MAKING A POINT: P. Dharanendra Kumar, Vice-President of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat speaking at the district-level youth festival in Mangalore on Friday. — PHOTO: R. Eswarraj

MANGALORE: Empty chairs, guests, judges and media persons outnumbered the contestants at the district-level youth festival organised jointly by Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat, district unit of Kannada Sahitya Parishat and Dakshina Kannada District Youth Federation, here on Friday.

The event was precursor to the State-level meet to be held at Davangere on December 27.

The irony of the situation was not lost on the guests, including the president of the panchayat Mamatha D.S. Gatti, who presided over the function, and her deputy P. Dharanendra Kumar, who inaugurated the meet.

Gokuldas Shetty, president of Mangalore Taluk Panchayat, the chief guest, said that such an event had to be organised in a better manner. Ms. Gatti, Mr. Kumar and Mr. Shetty observed that the lack proper guidance and opportunities for the youth to display their talent was the main reason for most of them going astray at an early age.

Ms. Gatti told the officials concerned that there should not be a repeat of such a situation. Stating that youth had a major role in nation building, Ms. Gatti said the youth deserved a better deal. She said that the officials should have taken care to ensure that there was greater participation, at least from the members of various yuvaka and yuvathi mandals, which were active in the district. She suggested that the youth should be given an opportunity to display their talent on the cultural stage at the ongoing Karavali Utsav.

She instructed the officials to ensure that the youth festival was given due publicity in the future.

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