Haveri literary meet may be in May: KSP

Haveri: The Haveri district administration and the Kannada Sahitya Parishath have tentatively scheduled the three-day Akhil Bharath Kannada Sahitya Sammelana for May 20, 21, and 22.
This will be the 86th edition of the literary meet,
A section of event watchers has, however, appealed for the event to be shifted to a cooler time of the year as the summer heat discourages people from participating in events.
The first preparatory meeting after Mahesh Joshi took over as Parishath president was held at the deputy commissioner’s office on Monday. The date for the event will be finalised after a discussion with district in-charge minister Shivaram Hebbar and chief minister Basavaraj Bommai.
“As the meet will be held with corporate culture, we should give preference to time and every event should start on time and conclude within a prescribed period. We are expecting more than 1.5 lakh people for the three days, so we should arrange for accommodation, food, drinking water and other basics. We are planning to set up a main dais for the event,” Joshi said.
He added that as it will be hot in May, “we will hold events in the morning and the evening only. We should focus on a plastic-free event. The accommodation, including those for representatives, guests, VVIPs and others is a big challenge. We need to depend on neighbouring cities such as Hubballi, Dharwad and others for it,” Joshi said.
Deputy commissioner Sanjay Shettennavar said: “We are planning to set up centralised air conditioning on the main stage because the weather will be hot. We would reconsider the committees because we should add more active people who are working without any expectations. The district administration is ready to organise the three-day literary,” he said.
Performer Ashok Basti, who is also known as Junior Rajakumar, wants the event to be moved to November. “Time is less, so better postpone the event to November because more time is required for preparations. Moreover, people hesitate to participate in an event in the hot weather,” he said.
MLA Verupakshappa Ballari, zilla panchayat CEO Mohammad Roshan, additional deputy commissioner Tippeswamy, additional SP Vijayakumar Santosh, CMC president Sanjeevkumar Neeralagi and others were present at the meeting.