Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Dec 9: President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, is scheduled to visit the city on January 12, 2012, for inaugurating the 17th National Youth Festival. The festival is being organized in the district for the first time, at Mangala Stadium.

Additional chief secretary of the state government, Jairaj, who is in charge of supervising preparations for the festival, held discussions on the matters concerning the above festival with Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, Dr N S Channappa Gowda, in the company of M Maheshwar Rao, secretary in the department of commerce and industry.

The additional secretary visited Mangala Stadium and suggested to the officials to spread out carpets to ensure that dust does not rise, and to decorate the entire area around the stadium. He also visited Dr T M A Pai Convention Centre, where folk and other traditional dances are planned to be presented, and gave his advice to the concerned. After verifying the arrangements made for housing the delegates participating in the festival, he visited the students hostel of National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Suratkal. He then went to Town Hall, where cultural programmes will be arranged, and expressed happiness about the progress of preparations.

Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat chief executive officer, Dr K N Vijay Prakash, PWD superintending engineer, Balakrishna, and various officials who are heading different committees set up for the festival, were present at the meeting organized on this occasion.