The Hindu : Karnataka News : Large crowd turns up for valedictory of Hampi Utsav

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Monday, Jan 31, 2011
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Large crowd turns up for valedictory of Hampi Utsav

Staff Correspondent

Response to the opening ceremony was disappointing

HAMPI: A large number of people witnessed the “Janapada kalavahini”, a colourful procession of various folk artistes taken out as a prelude to the concluding ceremony of the Hampi Utsav here on Saturday.

Ananth Kumar, MP, offered flowers to the idol of Bhuvaneshwari and flagged-off the procession. The procession was led by elephants, specially brought here for the spectacle to add to its grandeur.

Improvement

Meanwhile, the public response for Hampi Utsav, which was disappointing on the opening day of January 27, however, saw an improvement from the second day, thanks to the arrangements made by some persons, reportedly to be the supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party. They had organised free bus services for the people to participate in the utsav.

Bus services

It was later understood that over 80 buses had been arranged to ferry the people from different parts of the district.

In addition, wide publicity was given to the commencement of the mega event in the media. As a result, connoisseurs of art and music turned up in large numbers, befitting the name and fame of the Hampi Utsav, being held as “janotsava” (people's festival).

Impact

However, some of the recent political developments had some impact on the event. The Government, unlike in the past, had not given adequate publicity to the inauguration of the utsav, even as there was inordinate delay in printing and distribution of invitation cards.

Apology

The print and electronic media persons had initially decided to boycott the valedictory function on Saturday as they were prevented by the police from reaching the press enclosure. In fact, some police personnel behaved rudely with presspersons.

The presspersons had to face a lot of inconvenience despite possessing valid passes. Superintendent of Police M.N. Nagaraj was, however, directing the police personnel not to restrict the presspersons and cameramen. Even the officials from the Information Department were not spared.

However, Mr. Nagaraj arrived at the spot and apologised for the inconvenience.

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