Prominent Kannada writers and scholars have written an open letter to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to expedite the process of securing autonomous status for the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada (CESCK) in Mysuru.
The signatories include S.L. Bhyrappa, Devanur Mahadeva, P. Mallesh, N. Boralingaiah, Kalegowda Nagawar, Aravind Malagatti and 18 others.
CESCK is currently functioning under the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) in the city. But there is a growing demand for autonomy for CESCK in order to expedite research and academic work on the classical Kannada language and its propagation.
The signatories to the letter have pointed out that the Central Institute for Classical Tamil secured autonomous status within years of the language being accorded classical status. Since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds, and more recently even the Telugu centre was shifted to Nellore while there is a delay in according autonomy to CESCK, said the writers.
But what triggered the writers’ ire was a letter by CIIL director D.G. Rao to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) earlier this year in which he stated that the centre was “in the initial stage after its establishment under CIIL” and that granting autonomy to CESCK at this juncture would be “premature”.
The Kannada writers have taken serious objection to this on the grounds that such remarks amount to stonewalling efforts to secure autonomy for CESCK. They have also demanded that the notification issued by CIIL on fresh appointments to the post of Project Director and other staff for Kannada language be rescinded. They termed it illegal.
When contacted, Prof. Rao said the decision to grant autonomous status to language centres was entirely up to the government and even he was for it. “We have prepared a detailed project report with the help of the CPWD and even worked out the staff strength required, and the same will be forwarded to the government by Monday or Tuesday,” he said.
However, in the absence of land all these years, the autonomous centre could not come into being and it was only recently that the University of Mysore agreed to release 3.5 acres of land, though it is yet to be transferred, Prof. Rao added.
On the controversy over calling for fresh notification to recruit staff for the Kannada centre, Prof. Rao said they were contractual in nature though all efforts were made to retain and continue the same staff.
However, other sources said the tenure of the existing director of CESCK was to end only in December 2020 and the notification calling for fresh recruitment was in violation of the MHRD guidelines. They argued that there were contractual staff in other wings of the CIIL working for 10 to 15 years and wondered why only CESCK staff had to be appointed afresh.
