Mysuru: Calling upon the people to imbibe human values in life, former Lokayukta Justice Santhosh Hegde has said that dissatisfaction will lead to greed, which ultimately bulldozes honesty.

He was speaking after inaugurating ‘Sri Krishna Katha Maruthi Prathapa’ Yakshagana programme organised by Shivamogga-based Natyashri Yakshagana Troupe in association with several other organisations at Kalamandira here yesterday.

Stressing that human values will ensure that the society remains clean, Justice Hegde said that he came to know about the shortcomings and loopholes in the society only after he became the Lokayukta.

Sharing his experiences as Lokayukta, he said that the Lokayukta Police had registered over 750 cases against the then CM, Ministers, MLAs, officials and other political leaders in five years.

Observing that we are in a world where richness and power is being worshipped, Justice Hegde regretted that honest persons seem to have no value in this world, which is taken over by materialism.

Stating that the country has been witness to mega scams involving thousands of crores of rupees, he said that it was very much disgusting to note that every such scam was almost equivalent to the volume of the State’s budget.

Regretting erosion of humanity, Justice Hegde, citing the example of accident victim Harish, whose body was severed into two halves in a road mishap a couple of years ago and people were busy clicking his pictures on their cell phones, wondered where all the humanity in human beings had gone.

Urging the Government to set up a separate University for Yakshagana in the State to conduct research on the traditional theatre art form, he demanded the State Government to declare Yakshagana as Karnataka’s art.

Noting that many people are working hard to make the art form more popular and they needed financial support, Hegde urged the Kannada and Culture Department to provide financial aid to the artistes so as to enable them to take up promotion of the art.

Karnataka Yakshagana Academy Chairman M.A. Hegde Dantkal, in his address, observed that people’s disinterest towards art and culture had led to the erosion of cultural values in the society.

Noting that art and literature has the strength to influence the inner mind of humans, he emphasised on the need to ensure that young minds are influenced by art and literature.

Alleging that there were attempts to shift the Academy’s headquarters to Mangaluru, he bemoaned that such moves will only limit Yakshagana and other such forms of art to a particular region. Asserting that the Academy should remain in Bengaluru, Hegde Dantkal called for more measures to popularise Yakshagana.

Art patron from Chamarajanagar G.M. Hegde, Programme organiser Vidwan Dattamurthy Bhat and others were present.