Karwar: Karavali Utsav will be held in Karwar on December 8, 9 and 10. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting presided over by District In-charge Minister R V Deshpande in Karwar on Thursday.

During the meeting, it was also decided to hold a fruit and flower exhibition at the premises of Warship museum apart from other cultural and entertainment programmes. 

The programmes will be held at the Mayur Verma stage on Rabindranath Tagore beach and also the Zilla Rangamandir.

Deshpande said that to attract more number of tourists, both domestic and foreigners, to the three-day festival, a campaign must be held through the website also. Local artistes must be given preference during the Utsav.

Deputy Commissioner S S Nakul said that over the past few years, the Utsav used to be held on second Saturday, Sunday and Monday in December. But the programmes held on Monday used to draw lesser audience. So, he opined that the Utsav should be held for only two days this year. Responding to this, MLA Roopali Naik said that the Utsav was being held for three days since many years and it was better to continue with the plan of three-day festival. Even minister Deshpande agreed with the MLA.

Invite new artistes

Deshpande said that artistes who were given opportunity to perform at Karavali Utsav and at Sirsi, Banavasi Utsav the previous years should not be given chance this time as others should also get opportunity.

He also instructed the deputy commissioner to prepare for organising ‘Suba diving’ and ‘Hornbill fest’, the other two popular fests of Uttara Kannada district.

Superintendent of Police Vinayak Patil, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Roshan, Zilla Panchayat president Jayashree Moger, vice-president Santosh Renake, Taluk Panchayat president Pramila Naik and others were present.