Sir,

In his article Do we need such a festive Dasara? (Star of Mysore dated Oct.9), Dr. Javeed Nayeem has raised an important question. When Covid-19 is raging albeit with certain curtailment of the crowd, the danger of control of the crowd is still a real problem. Instead, it is suggested that could not Dasara function be restricted to essential rituals at Sri Chamundeshwari Temple atop Chamundi Hill and private ceremony at the Palace. 

There is logic in his suggestion for we have seen the people are becoming restless due to uncertainty and long period of  incarceration. In this situation, Dasara festival with illumination and other attractions will act like a red rag to the bull.

In this situation, the crowd can go easily berserk and lead to avoidable tragedy despite precautions. The statistics for Karnataka districts show that Mysuru is next to Bengaluru in deaths due to Covid-19.  Therefore, the main focus should be containing Covid-19 and saving lives. 

In fact savings in expenditure by keeping the festival to bare minimum can be given as one time grant to MCC which is facing financial crunch and is not in a position to pay huge pending bills of Rs. 135 crore to the contractors as reported in media.

– H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Saraswathipuram, 10.10.2020

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