Dr Vishwa Cariappa BS, Managing Director of San Group of Companies was presented ‘Achievers of Bengaluru’ Award at a function held in Bengaluru on May 20, 2022.
The Award, instituted by Vijaya Karnataka and Bangalore Mirror, was presented by Home Minister Araga Jnanedra. The Home Minister expressed his delight and congratulated the organisers for hosting the prominent event.
Responding after receiving the award Dr BS Vishwa Cariappa said, “It is an inspiration for me to do even better.
‘Achievers of Bengaluru’ Award is intended to recognize those who have achieved excellence in various fields. I am very happy to be a part of such an award.” Cariappa further added, “San Group launched with the goal of achieving excellence in the real estate industry and today the company has expanded into several sectors. This award is also an encouragement to serve more people in the future.”
The event was also attended by noted performer Dolly Dhananjay along with actress Sanjana Anand.
This story is provided by SRV. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/SRV)
source: http://www.newdelhinews.net / New Delhi News.net / Home / by ANI / May 27th, 2022
Panchayat delegation to meet Forest, Tourism Ministers; will explain tourist inconvenience
Kushalnagar:
There is a renewed demand for a hanging bridge for River Cauvery at Dubare Elephant Camp in Kodagu, one of the main tourist attractions. The sanctioned project has been shelved now.
The Nanjarayapatna Gram Panchayat will push for the project and there are plans to meet Forest Minister Umesh Katti and Tourism Minister Anand Singh in the coming days.
The Panchayat is upset that its demand for hanging bridge has not been met despite funds being sanctioned twice and it has blamed the Forest Department for putting a spanner in the works, by citing procedural and permission issues.
River Cauvery flows in full force here and the two sides can only be accessed by motorised boats at present. The Panchayat President and members said that in the absence of a hanging bridge, tourists are risking their lives to cross from one side of the river to another.
While one side of the river bank is controlled by the Tourism Department, the other by the Forest Department that runs an elephant camp there. The suspension bridge was conceptualised to be 110 metres in length and 1.8-metre width and way back in 2015-2016, the Kodagu Tourism Department first sent the proposal at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.35 crore.
Two proposals not materialise.
It was to have three columns — two at the sides and one in the middle — as it is 1.8 metres wide. Other hanging bridges usually have only two columns. The Tourism Department sanctioned Rs. 1 crore for the project and consulted Girish Bharadwaj, popularly known as the ‘Bridgeman’ of India.
But the Forest Department denied permission and objected to the bridge construction by a third party, Nanjarayapatna Panchayat President C.L. Vishwa told Star of Mysore this morning.
In the second proposal, the Tourism Department wrote to the Forest Department and said that funds can be sanctioned by the Tourism Department and Forest Department can take up construction as per their norms after getting clearances. Even this did not take shape. “The Forest Department is not obliging and the officers are citing rules and other procedural issues,” he said.
Due to this bureaucratic back and forth, the Rs. 1 crore released was returned to the Government. “The Forest Department runs boat service from one side to other and there are only two mechanised boats that can accommodate only 15 but over 20 are accommodated without life jackets. Thousands of tourists miss seeing the elephants and the elephant camp that is only open from 8.30 am to 11.30 am. Only over 100 tourists can take the boats in over 10 to 12 trips,” he said.
Tourists risk lives
Due to the heavy rush for boats, many tourists take the risk of walking across the river on slippery rocks. Many deaths and accidents have occurred due to this and the Forest Department has to take the blame, Vishwa added. “The Department’s callousness is endangering the lives of people and without getting a chance to see the elephants, tourists refuse to pay the parking charges and this leads to fights,” he said.
The Panchayat will write to the Taluk Executive Officer, Kodagu Deputy Commissioner and Zilla Panchayat CEO seeking immediate construction of a hanging bridge. “We will even meet the Forest and Tourism Minister and explain the inconvenience to the tourists and also the risks involved in the absence of a hanging bridge,” he said.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News> Top Stories / May 22nd, 2022
Arriving in London during the late ’60s with just his guitar, Biddu Appaiah went on to become a globally renowned music producer who sold millions of records. Here’s his story.
What do the songs ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, ‘Aap Jaisa Koi’, ‘Disco Deewane’ and ‘Made in India’ have in common? Apart from selling millions of copies worldwide, these records serenaded audiences from Russia to Peru, and stood as pioneers of global disco and pop music from the Indian subcontinent. (Image courtesy Facebook/Biddu)
What also binds them is the fact that they were all produced by a man from Bengaluru who left for London in the Swinging Sixties to pursue his love for popular Western music.
It’s incredible that more people in India don’t know Biddu Appaiah and his remarkable contributions to music. A great deal of the pop music Indians listen to today can trace their roots to the songs he produced. It was his production chops that not only introduced the world to artists like Carl Douglas, Nazia Hassan, Alisha Chinai and Shaan, but also opened commercial avenues for other independent talent in India who didn’t require the backing or endorsement of the Hindi film industry (Bollywood) producers or already established cinestars.
The Hindi film industry fought to wrest control back from the music labels supporting independent artists, but the onset of the internet has revived that spirit of independence. Here’s the brief story of a man, music producer and composer who left India behind to follow his dreams, but found his way back to influence generations of artists.
Left: Biddu & Alisha China (Image: Instagram/Alisha Chinai), Right: At a book launch (Image: The Post Script Team/Creative Commons)
‘Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting’
Born on 8 February 1944 in Bengaluru, Biddu attended the Bishop Cottons Boys’ School. Growing up listening to pop music from the West on the popular radio station Radio Ceylon (of Sri Lanka), his major musical influences as a teenager were Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Learning how to play the guitar, he eventually formed a band with his friend Ken Gnanakan called the Trojans at 16.
They would play in small clubs, weddings, private parties and bars across Bengaluru before graduating to gigs in other cities like Kolkata and Mumbai. As an English-speaking band, they made their name by largely playing cover versions of songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Trini Lopez, and other Western music stars of the day. However, once the group split up, Biddu briefly performed as the lone ‘Trojan’ before leaving for England in the late 1960s.
Embarking on a journey to England in 1967, Biddu first made his way to the Middle East by climbing on a Haj ship in 1967 to Mecca before hitchhiking across the Middle East, where he performed multiple gigs.
In a 2020 interview with the Deccan Herald, he recalled, “I wanted to make it in the West. India in the 60s was a poor country; we were dancing with Russia instead of rocking with the West. I needed to get out of India as my interest was Western pop music; I was never into Bollywood. I left India and walked all the way to Beirut, singing there for six months until I saved enough moolah [money] to get to England.”
About his arrival in England, he once said in an interview with the BBC, “I didn’t really know too much about England or anything – I’d just come here on the chance of meeting the Beatles and doing some music. Everything that I did had this danceable flavour.”
To support his dreams of becoming a singer, he worked odd jobs, including one as a chef in London to save up enough money for studio time. He eventually cut a single, which impressed nobody and recalled “as an Indian in those days, they were happier to hire me as an accountant than as a singer”.
Realising that he wasn’t going to make it as a singer signed on a major record label, he instead decided to produce his own records, which, in the early days, didn’t generate much success. His first major success came in 1969, when he produced a song called ‘Smile for Me’ written by Barry and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees and performed by a Japanese band called The Tigers.
Since members of the band couldn’t speak English at the time, Biddu taught them how to sing English songs phonetically, given his knowledge of the language and love for pop music. The song topped the charts in Japan, and its success was the breakthrough he needed in England.
Entering the 1970s, he was producing a variety of disco songs that received little airplay on radio, but found underground appreciation from fans in the north of England.
His first real moment of success and mass acclaim came when he began working with Jamaican-born musician Carl Douglas in 1972. As a 2020 Financial Times article recollects, “Douglas was recording ‘I Want to Give You My Everything’ (written by Larry Weiss), which they did in a few hours. There was little time left to record a B-side. Douglas proposed ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, which he had written after seeing youngsters doing mock-kung fu moves in the street. It was recorded in a couple of takes. Biddu added the ‘Hurgh! Hurgh!’ exclamations. The record company people heard it and instantly realised that the B-side was the hit. They were right — ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ became one of the biggest-selling singles of all time.”
From here, there was no looking back. Biddu would soon establish himself as an important producer in the UK soul and disco scenes in the 1970s, working with a variety of artists including Tina Charles and Jimmy James. The songs he produced made their way to the UK Singles Chart and Billboard 100, while he continued making his own critically acclaimed music with ‘The Biddu Orchestra’.
‘Aap Jaisa Koi’
Biddu was never truly interested in doing film soundtracks, according to his autobiography ‘Made in India: Adventures of a Lifetime’. But that changed when Feroz Khan, a renowned Hindi cinema actor and producer, came to London to meet him in 1979.
Feroz had heard his instrumental albums and wanted him to produce a song for a film he was making called ‘Qurbani’. They met at an apartment he was renting near Claridges Hotel in Mayfair, and what ensued would change Indian pop music forever.
The Bollywood actor’s sales pitch was pretty simple, even though Biddu admittedly knew little of Hindi films or music. Feroz said, “Listen, you and I come from Bangalore. We are both Bangalore boys.” Biddu observed that Feroz was using the “old boys from the hood routine”. Feroz would then go on to say, “Come on, do it for a friend. Your mama will be so pleased.”
Although Biddu initially agreed to take on the project, he was still not convinced, even though Feroz had gone out on a limb for him. Local music directors in Mumbai had threatened to organise a boycott of his film if he “used a foreigner” to make music for one of the songs. However, once Feroz agreed to Biddu’s wish to record the song in London and not use playback singers dominating the music charts in India, there was no looking back.
The next thing they had to do was find a singer in London who could sing in Hindi. That’s when Feroz Khan came up with the name of a young 15-year-old Pakistani girl living in London called Nazia Hassan. Feroz knew her parents well and convinced them to let their daughter sing one song for his film. A couple of days later Biddu met the young Nazia, her brother Zoheb and their parents at their apartment in Century Court opposite the famous Lord’s Cricket Ground.
After singing a verse and chorus from one of Biddu’s songs ‘Dance Little Lady’, Nazia got the gig and went on to record the timeless ‘Aap Jaisa Koi Meri Zindagi Mein Aaye’.
“Her voice did not have the piercing sharpness of most Asian singers. The pleasantness in her voice was around C3, from middle C to G4 — warm, expressive and nubile. It wasn’t a great voice. But it was different, and it was this that made the difference between using her and someone from the old school in India,” wrote Biddu in his autobiography.
After recording Nazia’s part, he went into Red Bus Studios and added some of his magic dust alongside his sound engineer Richard Dodd.
“I had a catchy introductory riff played on the sitar; I used the syn drums, which had never been used in a Hindi song before. The syn drum made a sound not unlike my name. It went ‘bidoo’ every time you hit it and I double-tracked Nazia’s voice to give it some oomph. Once again, I used a rhythm box with a Latin beat to give it a hip-swaying groove,” he wrote.
‘Made in India’
Suffice to say, the song became a raging hit in not just India, but around the world. Despite its massive success, Bollywood didn’t come calling immediately. Instead, about a year later, a representative from the London branch of HMV (later called SaReGaMa), one of India’s largest music companies, came to see him. The record executive expressed the company’s desire for Biddu to make an album with Nazia Hassan. This was the first non-film album the company was going to make. After much negotiation, which also included the payment of royalties to the artists involved, he got into the studio with Nazia and Zoheb to produce an Urdu album.
Modelling the siblings on another famous brother-sister duo in the United States called ‘The Carpenters’ they recorded the album ‘Disco Deewane’, which was a smash hit across the world with the record charting across 14 countries, including Brazil, where it went No.1. The record sold almost 100,000 copies on the day of its release, a remarkable feat for South Asian music artists in the West. Following ‘Disco Deewane’, they went onto work on three more albums including ‘Star/Boom Boom’ in 1982, ‘Young Tarang’ in 1984 and ‘Hotline’ in 1987.
Album cover of a pop and disco music classic (Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
Together, the brother-sister duo went on to sell 60 million records worldwide. During this period, he also made massive hit records for famous Japanese (Akina Nakamori), Chinese and Filipino pop stars as well, besides making a return to the UK music scene with house music records.
After spending about a decade making records with Nazia and Zoheb, he worked with Hindi vocalist Shwetta Shetty producing her 1993 album ‘Johnny Joker’.
But it was 1995 that Biddu really made his mark in India, composing and producing the legendary ‘Made in India’ album by Hindi pop and playback singer Alisha Chinai. The song and the music video that followed was one of the key avenues MTV chose to launch their channel in India.
Interestingly, some anecdotes even claim that the song was originally meant for Nazia on the vocals, but she apparently refused. Eventually the song fell on Alisha China’s lap and for the backup vocals, Biddu employed another young budding singer, Sophie Chaudhary.
opping the charts in India, the album sold over five million copies. In addition to Alisha Chinai, he kickstarted the pop music careers of artists like Shaan, his sister Sagarika Mukherjee and even famous playback singers Sonu Nigam and KS Chitra. A lot of the Indian pop music scene in the 1990s and early 2000s was marked by the records that Biddu produced.
There’s a lot more to his story. But what’s more important is that generations of people from literally all over the world have swayed their hips to his hit records. And this isn’t even an exaggeration. For a man from Bengaluru, who hitchhiked across the Middle East and landed up in London with his guitar, he sure made his mark on the world of music.
A drill on rescule and relief being conducted in the Harangi backwaters by the Kodagu Disrtrict Disaster Management Authority, on Thursday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Kodagu district administration displays its monsoon preparedness
The Kodagu District Disaster Management Authority tested its monsoon preparedness and its capabilities to conduct rescue and relief operations during natural calamities, at the Harangi backwaters on Thursday.
This is part of an exercise in the run up to the monsoon conducted by the Authority not only to test their capabilities but also to infuse confidence in the public.
The exercise was conducted at Basavanahalli in the backwaters of the dam and entailed putting all the equipment at its disposal and using it for various missions that were simulated for the drill.
Kodagu has been affected by floods and landslides in the recent past and hence the focus was on rescuing people trapped amidst swirling waters or from landslides and protecting human and animal life.
Deputy Commissioner B.C.Satish said the District Disaster Management Authority and the district administration had taken precautionary measures to prevent any untoward incident and was also equipped to deal with any eventuality. The exercise conducted by the district police and fire emergency personnel, was a demonstration of the strengths and capabilities, he added.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team was expected to arrive and be stationed in key and vulnerable areas of the dsitrict next week, said Mr. Satish. Both the NDRF and SDRF will coordinate their activities in areas identified as vulnerable based on the floods and landslides that hit the district since 2018, he added.
In addition, scientists from the Geological Survey of India are also expected to pay a visit to the district and map the vulnerable areas. The DC said task forces will be constituted at the district, taluk and gram panchayat levels during monsoon to coordinate rescue and relief in case of any eventuality. Nodal officers have already been appointed to coordinate the efforts at all hoblis and necessary instruction and information provided on the ways and means of handling any situation in an effective manner, said Mr.Satish.
Fire Officer P. Chandan said that all preparations were in place to rescue human and animal lives in case of floods.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – May 26th, 2022
CM Bommai says focus is Beyond Bengaluru; Tier 2 and 3 cities to get importance
Davos:
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai yesterday launched the global investors meet at the Karnataka pavilion on the main promenade at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meet being held in Davos. Apart from presentations and videos, the participants were delighted to receive a packet of coffee grown in the State.
WEF Summit concludes today and Bommai has extended his stay by another day to have one more round of talks with business honchos who have shown interest in investing in Karnataka.
The CM’s delegation had taken samples of Arabica and Robusta variety of Coorg coffee and the same varieties of coffee grown in Chikamagalur. Every visitor to Karnataka pavilion was given coffee bags and a note.
“Karnataka, the GI coffee hub of India is home to five GI-tagged coffees. Along with Monsooned Malabar Arabica and Robusta Coffee, Chikamagalur Arabica and Coorg Arabica coffee showcase how Karnataka’s magical beans are globally renowned,” the note said.
Addressing investors and news agencies, Bommai said Karnataka is the safest place to do business and it is not competing domestically but at international level and listed hydrogen and ammonia fuel and semiconductors as next focus areas.
He said that nearly half of the foreign companies present in India are already in Karnataka and all of them are planning to expand and diversify in the State while many more are evincing interest attracted by the robust infrastructure, and ease of doing business in the State
Bommai said the process to decongest the State capital Bengaluru is underway by developing many adjoining areas as well as tier 2 (like Mysuru) and tier 3 (Hubballi and Dharwad) cities while four more airports would be built this year.
“Karnataka’s story is different from other States,” he said.
Bommai said Davos experience has been excellent and he has witnessed that the international investor community has recognised India as an emerging economic giant and particularly Karnataka,” the Chief Minister said. “In Bengaluru, because of the hi-tech ecosystem which we have, there are the highest number of R&D centres and our expertise in aerospace, defence, machinery tools and of course Information Technology and Biotechnology. We are also looking beyond Bengaluru for all these projects. That is necessary and work has already begun,” he added.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / May 25th, 2022
The contribution of Tibetans Soldiers , who have served in the Special Frontier Force (A unit of Indian Armed Forces) in fighting with enemies by joining with the Indian Soldiers, have been hailed by Air Marshal (retd.) Nanda Cariappa, son of First Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal late K.M. Cariappa.
He was speaking as the chief guest at a felicitation programme organised by Indo-Tibetan Friendship Society (ITFS), Bylakuppe, in honour of Tibetan ex-Servicemen of Special Frontier Force and the families of deceased ex-Servicemen recently.
He further said that the security of India depends on the freedom to Tibet. “Tibetan soldiers are protecting our country in an altitude of 18,000ft. without oxygen and they have also participated in India-Pakistan War for liberation of Bangla. According to them, the time will come when Tibetans residing in temporary houses in India will certainly go back to Tibet for permanent houses, he added and appealed Tibetan youths to follow the footsteps of their forefathers.
Meena Nanda, wife of Nanda Cariappa, attended the event.
Earlier, B.V. Javaregowda, President of ITFS, Bylakuppe, explained the purpose of the day. Settlement Officers of Tibetans Government Lobsang Yeshi explained the history of Tibet and another Settlement Officer Chime Dorje introduced Air Marshal (retd.) Nanda Cariappa to the gathering. A.A. Chengappa, Secretary of ITFS briefed the activities of the Society. Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile Lobsang Sithar and Ngodup Dorjee also spoke.
Pema Sithar, President of Tibetan ex-Servicemen Organisation, briefed on the roll of the Tibetan Soldiers in Tibetan Army.
Presidents of Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association and Heads of various Monasteries were present. More than 500 ex-Servicemen and their family members participated. J.P. Urs, South Zone Co-ordinator of Tibet Support Group, proposed a vote of thanks.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / May 23rd, 2022
People can send stories along with photographs and audio or video clips for curation.
Bengaluru-based India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is inviting members of the Kodava community to share stories of their people and cultural history for an online museum it plans to launch next year.
It is International Museum Day on May 18.
Speaking ahead of the occasion, IFA said people can send stories along with photographs and audio or video clips, which will be curated.
The project is called Sandooka, the Living Museum of Kodava Culture. Sandooka means treasure chest in Coorgi language, and the museum strives to be a repository of stories ranging from the traditional costumes to present-day experiences of the Kodavas, native inhabitants of Kodagu in Karnataka.
IFA is working with Nitin Kushalappa, an author and researcher who is a member of the Kodava community, to put together this project along with design experts Upasana and Saurav Roy from Switch Studio.
The project started in 2021. Rathi Vinay Jha, chair of the Sandooka museum’s advisory group, shares, “The younger generation of the community is dispersed all over the world and is losing connection with their heritage. This museum will provide an opportunity to reconnect with their culture.”
And because the project wants to foster community participation and be accessible globally, the concept of online museums fits well, says Lina Vincent, project director and curator.
Arundhati Ghosh, executive director, IFA, believes the museum will help document and preserve the stories and heritage of the Kodavas, much of which remains undocumented.
“My vision is for it to be a virtual space devoted to the Kodava community. I hope this can serve as a model for other communities that are disappearing to keep their stories alive,” says Lina.
You can submit the stories at sandookamuseum.org/form/intro
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Metrolife – Your Bond With Bengaluru / by Sowmya Raju, DHNS / May 17th, 2022
A file photo of workers in a coffee estate near Rayarakoppalu in Hassan district, Karnataka.
CSIR-CFTRI, Mysuru has developed the drink from coffee leaf and claims the brew can be an alternative to green tea or herbal tea
How about a coffee leaf brew? Sounds interesting. Coffee leaves can be used to prepare a health drink which can be an alternative to green tea.
CSIR-CFTRI, Mysuru has developed the drink from coffee leaf which it claims can be used as an alternative to green tea or herbal tea. “It is an ideal health drink to consume at any time of the day. The brew can be prepared with water which can be filtered and consumed,” the institute said.
Phytochemicals like phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, and anthocyanins in coffee leaves contribute to its health benefits. The coffee leaf brew mix that the institute has developed can be produced from the leaves that are pruned at the time of maintenance of the plants. They can be a good source of raw material for the drink, the scientists at the CFTRI said here on Wednesday.
Selection of coffee leaf is key as the quality of the brew mix depends on the raw material, according to the Technology Transfer Department.
CFTRI said the plant for producing coffee leaf brew mix can be set up at a cost of ₹70 lakh and the total project cost would be around ₹1.40 crore. A Kushalnagar-based coffee powder manufacturing unit has taken the licence of the product for mass production.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – May 11th, 2022
Owner Shruti Shibulal sees a big opportunity in religious tourism and is very upbeat about the hospitality segment as cases drop and travel picks up.
For Shruti Shibulal, the last fiscal (FY22) was a good one. “With international travel dropping, many people spent a lot of money on high-quality domestic travel,” she says. As CEO & Director of Tamara Leisure Experiences, the pandemic was a challenging period but the growths story is not just back but she is going aggressive on expansion as well.
The daughter of S D Shibulal, co-founder, Infosys, Shruti acquired an MBA from Columbia Business School.
An internship at the Shangri-La in Hong Kong had her “falling in love with hospitality” and the career path was sealed from that point. Tamara (meaning lotus in Malayalam) launched its first resort in 2012 and today, it operates three brands in India – The Tamara Resorts, (that offers luxury stays in Coorg, Kodaikanal and Allepey), O by Tamara (does upscale business hotels in Trivandrum and Coimbatore) and finally Lilac Hotels (a mid-segment chain with two properties in Bangalore). There is also an overseas presence with four properties in Germany.
The first fiscal after the pandemic hit the world (FY21) saw Tamara adding three new properties. It includes a 19-key ayurvedic resort in Allepey called Amal Tamara, a 147-room hotel in Coimbatore (this was courtesy and acquisition and will be re-opened as O by Tamara) and a 128- room hotel in Germany’s Moxy Bremen. As a result, it brings in an additional 315 keys or a 36 per cent growth over the previous year.
Determining a location for a property is a big decision in this industry. Shruti throws up a few insights here.
“Around 80 per cent of tourism in India is religious tourism and there is a clear need for an overnight stay,” she explains. That thought process now has Tamara expanding into Kannur, Guruvayoor (both in Kerala) and Kumbakonam (in Tamil Nadu), all of which are at various stages of development. “These are pilgrimage destinations and also transit destinations. Obviously, we are looking at more locations but will go about it strategically,” she said.
The logic of pricing power is smaller destinations makes for a compelling argument. Shruti points out that one can price a four-star property in Bengaluru at Rs 9,000. “In Tier 2 and 3 locations, it will not be more than Rs 5,000. Our model is one of diversification and not being restricted to just one geography,” she says. Coimbatore is the first instance of acquiring a building as opposed to the normal approach of going ground-up.
“That helps us in saving time and the pandemic has thrown up some very attractive opportunities since valuations are dropping,” she said.
source: http://www.businesstoday.in / Business Today / Home> Latest> Corporate / by Krishna Gopalan / May 10th, 2022
The city-based VeKare Ex-Servicemen Trust has urged the State Government to give exemption from entry fee to the armed and paramilitary forces personnel visiting ‘Sunny Side’ that houses General K.S. Thimayya Museum in Madikeri, Kodagu district.
Trust President Mandetira N. Subramani has written a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai urging to fulfill this demand by exempting entry fee to those in service and retired Armed Forces personnel.
Urging the Kodagu District Administration and the Government to consider the request, he said the exemption in paying an entry fee of Rs. 20 has been sought as a respect towards the Armed Forces fraternity.
Subramani has also urged the Director, Department of Sainik Welfare and Resettlement, to impress upon the Chief Minister to pass orders in this regard.
He has suggested the exemption should be granted upon production of identity cards issued by the competent authority.
The suggestion came from an 85-year-old ex-serviceman Manira T. Nachappa, who had fought three major wars when he served the 37 Coorg Medium Regiment from November 1957 to December 1977.
“Nachappa met me at the recent annual general body meeting of T. Shettigeri Ex-Ser-vicemen Welfare Association in Kodagu and urged me to take up the issue with the authorities concerned,” Subramani said. The museum was inaugurated in February 2021 by President of India Ram Nath Kovind. “Sunny Side”, the ancestral house of General K.S. Thimayya, who served as the Chief of Army Staff from 1957 to 1961, has been converted into a museum.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / May 10th, 2022
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