Covid, fund crunch put brakes onDharwad Sahitya Sambhrama again

Dharwad: Dharwad Sahitya Sambhrama, a literary festival on the lines of Jaipur Literary Festival, which is normally held in January every year is not likely to be held this time also, thanks to Covid-related restrictions imposed by the government. The literary event which saw seven editions could not be held in 2020 and 2021.
The Dharwad Sahitya Sambhrama Trust has been holding the three-day event every year since 2013 and the fest has attracted large number of literature and art lovers from not only Karnataka but also from other states.
The ‘Sambhrama’ was inspired by Jaipur Literary Festival but is not a replica. It has evolved its own way of conducting the event.
The event included sessions on various relevant topics followed by lively and sometimes heated debates. The fest had provided an opportunity to literature and art lovers to see their favourite and top litterateurs and artists and interact with them.
The Sahitya Sambhrama Organising Committee was finding it difficult to raise funds for the event and the uncertainty in the government releasing the promised fund had cast a shadow on the festival.
The demand for funds in the state government’s annual budget has remained unfulfilled.
Meanwhile, the literary world has lost eminent litterateurs like UR Ananthmurthy, KS Nissar Ahmed, professor S Shettar, Siddalingaiah, GS Amur, MM Kalburgi, Giraddi Govidraj and Chandrashekhar Patil, who were the centre of attraction at the festival.
During the Congress-JD(S) rule when HD Kumarswamy was the chief minister. then minister for Kannada and culture DK Shivakumar had decided to stop grants to organizations conducting literary and cultural events sponsored by his department. His argument was that many unscrupulous organizations were siphoning off the funds. As a result, there was no budgetary allocation to the department to fund these events.
Dharwad Sahitya Sambhrama’s estimated budget is Rs 30 lakh and out of that Rs 15 lakh was coming from the department. The grant for the 2019 edition had not been released till December 2019.
No funds
The trustees and leading writers including poet Channaveera Kanavi had approached the then Kannada and culture minister CT Ravi, district minister Jagadish Shettar, MLA Arvind Bellad and secretary to the department of Kannada and culture seeking their help in getting grants for the festival. “They have assured they will try to get the funds, but nothing officially had been done in that direction,” said a trustee.
“Our efforts are on to convince the people in power about the need to support the event. If the government releases the grant and Covid-19 restrictions are eased, we can hold the festival next year,”said another trustee.