Seventeen years after constituting Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy, the State government has come forward to construct a Tulu Bhavan here to house the academy.
The academy was constituted in 1994 when M. Veerappa Moily was Chief Minister. Since then, it had been functioning from a rented building of the Mangalore City Corporation at Lalbagh.
According to president of the academy Palthady Ramakrishna Achar, of the Rs. 4.8-crore project to construct the bhavan near Urwa Stores, the government sanctioned Rs. 2 crore a few days ago. The government had earmarked 50 cents of land to the academy near Urwa Stores for the bhavan.
The then president of the academy M.K. Seetharama Kulal made a proposal to construct the bhavan in 2006 at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.46 crore. The proposal has been pending before the government since then.
Mr. Achar told The Hindu on Sunday that the academy had revised the original building plan sent by Mr. Kulal. According to the revised plan, the building would have space for parking vehicles on the ground floor. The academy's office would be on the first floor. It would have a hall on the second floor and a museum-cum-guesthouse on the third floor.
Mr. Achar said that the academy was not interested in raising funds required to complete the building from donors as had been thought of when Mr. Kulal was heading it. He said that funds would be sought from the government.
The academy president said that if donations were raised, the academy would be at the mercy of donors. It was not right in the interests of the academy, he added.
Mr. Achar said that the academy had received 24,000 Tulu textbooks for classes sixth and seventh for 2011-12 from the government. Of them, 16,000 textbooks, 8,000 each had been distributed in Belthangady, Sullia, Puttur and Bantwal education blocks. Textbooks were yet to be distributed in Mangalore, Udupi and Moodbidri education blocks.
He alleged that a senior official of the Education Department at Moodbidri was not showing interest in distributing the textbooks. The official was seeking consent letters from parents that their children wanted to learn Tulu as the third optional language.
Mr. Achar said that he would take up the issue with the authorities concerned once textbooks were distributed in Udupi and Mangalore education blocks.
