Three-Member Jury on a three-day visit to city to see handicraft centres

Mysuru: Mysuru which is known as the heart of handicraft land in the country is now in the reckoning for the World Craft City tag. In all, there are 37 cities in the world that have been declared as World Craft City and the only city in the country to join that list is Jaipur, said District Industries Centre (DIC) Joint Director D.K. Lingaraju.

Speaking to Star of Mysore here this morning, he said that a Jury consisting of three members from the World Council Committee (WCC) that include Dr. Ghada Rida Hijjawi from Kuwait, Ahmed Saleh Yusuf from Muscat and Usha Krishnan from Chennai are on a three-day visit to the city visiting various handicraft factories and the Karakushala Kendra.

Mysuru has been trying for this honour from 2014 and this time when the proposal was sent to the State Government, the Jury from WCC is visiting the city, he said.

The Jury Members arrived yesterday in the city and they were taken around the Palace and other places and today they have already visited Arundathi Fine Arts, Geetha Fine Arts in Mandi Mohalla and the Dolls Exhibition of Ramsons. Earlier in the day, they had a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar and other officials, said Lingaraju.

In the afternoon, the Jury Members will be visiting Cauvery Emporium on Sayyaji Rao Road. They will also be visiting the Visvesvaraya Trade Promotion Centre to learn about the  export of handicrafts from Mysuru, he said.

Mysuru is known for sandalwood, silk, rosewood inlay works, wood carvings and Ganjifa Painting which also now is a craft apart from handicrafts from Mysuru and Tanjore paintings, he said.

The others who are accompanying the Jury Members include NGO Co-ordinator and former Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner K.S. Raikar, DIC Deputy Director Chowdaiah, VTPC Manager Vardaraj, Museums and Heritage Deputy Director  Nirmala Matapathi.