Centre of excellence to be shifted to Jayalakshmi Mansion

Mysuru: The State government is planning toshift the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada(CESCK) to the Jayalakshmi Mansion. Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simhaon Saturday inspected the mansion and held a preliminary meeting in this regard.

Simha told reporters that a proposal along with the DPR(Detailed Project Report) has been sent to the State government for

shifting CESCK to Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion from its current location atNational Centre for History of Science (NCHS) of University of Mysore(UoM), Manasagangothri campus.

Pointing out that the over century-old Mansion, a heritage structure builtby the erstwhile Mysore mharajas, is in a dilapidated condition, Pratap Simha said that during his recentmeeting with Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan, in whichChief Minister Basavaraj Bommai was also present, he had sought Rs 25crore for repairs and restoration of the old structure. But Pradhan then clarified thatthe Union Education Ministry could sanction funds only for CESCK activitiesand not for building and such other purposes and told him to seek fundsfrom the State government.

Subsequently, he met Bommai afew days ago and sought funds, the latter readily agreed.

CESCK was approved by the Union government in 2011, three years afterKannada was accorded 'Classical Language' status in 2008. CESCKfunctioned from CIIL on Hunsur Road for ninve years, before it was shifted to NCHS in November 2020, where only a few employees are working and no activities are going on for making the Centre a fully operational.