Single stall allotted to multiple vendors!

Mysuru: All is not well at this year’s Dasara Food Mela with vendors expressing their displeasure over the arrangements and allotment of stalls at the Maharaja’s College Grounds. The vendors, who arrived at the food mela venue to set up their stalls, were in for a shock as their stalls were occupied by different vendors causing confusion.

Following this, Dasara Food Mela Working President Kantharaju had to face the wrath from the vendors, who gheroed the official seeking clarifications regarding the allotment of stalls. Later, the official arrived with the list of vendors who had done the payments and vacated those who had not completed the payments with the help of the Police personnel.

With  the food mela set for the inauguration at 11.30 am this morning, only one stall ‘Mulbagal Dosa Corner’ was readied for Minister for Food and Civil Supplies K.H. Muniyappa to cut the ribbon. However, the inauguration did not take place as per the scheduled time.

Speaking to Star of Mysuru, Dasara Food Mela Deputy Special Officer and MUDA Commissioner A.N. Raghunandan said they were expecting a total of 118 stalls to be set up at venue for this year’s food mela.

When asked about the reduction in the number of stalls from 200 to 118, Raghunandan said there was no reduction and that the allotment would be done depending on the demand from the vendors.

Sources said that Dasara Special Officer and Deputy Commissioner G. Lakshmikanth Reddy, who visited the venue on Tuesday, expressed his displeasure over the arrangements and instructed the officials to reduce the number of stalls to 100 with 50 vegetarian and 50 non-vegetarian stalls.

Earlier, instead of providing sufficient space for visitors to consume food, officials had also erected the stalls in the middle inviting strong objection from the Deputy Commissioner after which they were removed.

Sources further added that out of the total 100 stalls, only 35 vegetarian vendors and 15 non-vegetarian vendors had done the payment. The officials said that out of 230 applications received, 128 applications were approved by the Sub-Committee. 

This year, the authorities are charging Rs. 88,500 including GST as rent from vendors selling non-vegetarian food and Rs. 59,000 with GST from vendors selling vegetarian food.

No separate space for Bamboo Biriyani

Every year, a dedicated space was allotted at the Bharat Scouts and Guides Grounds to the tribal community members to prepare delicacies such as Bamboo Biriyani and Bidrakki Payasa using firewood stoves to avoid inconvenience to other stalls. However, this year, the committee has not allotted a separate space for the tribal community members of prepare their delicacies.