Mysore/Mysuru: Artistes have appealed to the State Government to launch ‘Kalarakshane,’ a scheme to help the artistes who are in distress due to lockdown imposed to check the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

A group of artistes submitted a memorandum to Co-operation and District in-Charge Minister S.T. Somashekar and Department of Kannada and Culture Assistant Director H. Chennappa at Kalamandira premises here on Wednesday. The Minister promised to look into their demands.

Ajay Shastri, an anchor of cultural programmes, said that over 2,000 artistes of city have been involved in promotion of art like folk, singing, dance and percussion. Most of them were hit by lockdown. The Government must identify such artistes and implement ‘Kalarakshane’ scheme for their welfare. They should be given benefits like special package, food kits and free vaccination. The District Administration must be asked to constitute a Committee comprising artistes and officers to implement the proposed scheme. 

He also wanted the Government to reduce the age for availing the financial assistance from the Government from the existing 35 years to 25 years so that more people would be benefited. 

BJP Spokesperson Mohan, artistes Raghavendraprasad, Gurudutt, Ganesh Bhat, Vishwanath, Krishnamurthy, Ravishankar, Soubhagya Prabhu, Ashwini Shastri, Raghavendra Ratnakar, Pradeep Kiggal, Kamsale Ravi, Kiran, Harish Pandava and others were present.