BENGALURU: “Around 2,000 Kannada primary schools are on the verge of closure because students are opting for English medium schools. I have instructed the department not to close the schools even if there is only one student,” said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He was addressing the guests at the event held to felicitate Rajyotsava Award winners at Ravindra Kalakshetra on Wednesday evening. As many as 57 of the 62 Rajyotsava Award winners were feted by the chief minister on the occasion. The winners were given a prize money of Rs. 1 lakh and a 25 gm gold medal along with a citation.
Among those award winners who gave the ceremony a miss are a writer and historian Ramachandra Guha and singer KJ Yesudas who could not be present in the city to receive their awards. Noted critic DS Nagabhushan was absent as he had rejected the award.Khaja Bandanawaz Dargah custodian Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini from Kalaburagi who was chosen for the award in the social services category instead of human rights activist Ravindranath Shanbhag also could not be present. Lalitha K Rao who won the award in the Music-Dance category was also absent. L Shekar Nayak from Shivamurthy who captained the Blind Indian Cricket team got a resounding applause from the audience. Persian scholar S Syed Ahmed was probably the oldest winner of the Rajyotsava Award at 99.
The crowd couldn’t help but appreciate Mukhyamantri Chandru being bestowed the award by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.CM Siddaramaiah said, “Today, we should determine to speak only in Kannada with a fellow Kannadigas and also teach those who don’t know the language. This is a small service that the citizens can do for their state.”Kannada and Culture department Minister Umashree said that the Kanaja website launched by the department already had 48 lakh viewers and will soon have all state laws in Kannada displayed on the website.