Muscat Accords Fitting Honour to Dr Veerendra Heggade
Report : Clarence Pinto
Daijiworld Media Network - Muscat
Pics : Goldwin Soares
Muscat, Sep 28: As the sun moved slowly down the beautiful mountain ranges of the Sultanate of Oman on Thursday September 27, the people of Karnataka residing in Oman witnessed a new dawn in the grand hall of Al Falaj Hotel, Ruwi.
Every inch of this traditionally decorated hall had a clear expression of gratitude, manifestation of love and above all a kind welcome to a leader of multitude of human beings in the southern state of Karnataka. There was no barrier of caste, religion and place of birth in Karnataka for the admirers who attended this graceful function and well planned felicitation ceremony, all of them came with the sole purpose to express their infinite feelings of respect and bountiful admiration of the hereditary administrator of the famous temple Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala in the state of Karnataka.
Padma Bhusan Dr Veerendra Heggade, the power behind the transformation of the lives of millions of poor people of Karnataka through his innovative thoughts and supreme ideas, was honored and felicitated by the people of Karnataka residing in the Sultanate.
The Indian tradition was showcased throughout the beautifully planned program and Dr Heggade along with other dignitaries welcomed with an Indian traditional band. Sheikh Kanakshi Gokuldas Khimji –a veteran businessman in Oman and supporter of Indian culture and traditions through various channels and programs, Dr Satish Nambiar – leader and chairman of the Indian Social Club, Kiran Asher – Managing Director of Al Ansari Group of companies, winner of Pravasi Bharathiya Award and prominent leader of the Baniya Business community, Arun Parakh – Financial Advisor at Bahwan Group of Companies were present at the welcome procession. Dr Heggade and other distinguished dignitaries were presented with the floral bouquets by the organizing committee members.
The program commenced with a prayer dance to Lord Ganesha titled Ganesha Vandana which was presented by Sneha Bangera. The anchor of the program was Sudha Sashikanth and she presented the introduction to every part of the program in Kannada and English so that every member of the audience could understand the same.
Kalladi Shankar Shetty, prominent member of the organizing committee presented a profile of Dr Veerendra Heggade.
The program continued with honoring of Dr Heggade by the dignitaries. Sheikh Kanakshi Khimji offered Sandalwood floral garland to Dr Heggade and Kirar Asher honored Dr Heggade with Shawl. On behalf of the people of Karnataka Dr Sathish Nambiar presented Dr Heggade with Fruit basket. It was a token of love and expression of gratitude expressed through a memento which was presented by Mallar Shashidar Shetty.
In his speech Dr Heggade expressed his gratitude to the Karnataka based NRIs in Oman. He expressed his great admiration of Sultan Qaboos bin Said for his benevolence to the non-resident Indians working in Oman. He also called all Indians to become more responsible towards their lives, society and nation. Dr Heggade’s speech was greatly admired by the audience.
Kiran Asher and Dr Nambiar expressed gratitude to Dr Heggade for accepting the invitation from the community and sharing his experience.
The cultural program continued with a Bharath Natyam program titled Natyarpanam by Prameela Ramesh and her Nratyanjalli team. Traditional cultural program Yakshagana Rupaka was then presented by Spandana team of Muscat. The program concluded with vote of thanks proposed by Yoganand.
The organizing committee, the brain and strength behind this fascinating felicitation ceremony comprised Shashidhar Shetty Mallar, Shankar T Shetty Kalladi, Nagendra Kumar Moodabidri, Nagesh Shetty, S. K. Poojari, Ashok Suvarna, Manjunath Nayak, Ramesh Shettigar, Prakash Naik Koni, Yogananda, Karunakar Rao, Ramananda Kunder and Dinkar Bhat.
Dr Veerendra Heggade, a philanthropist, great visionary, educationist, social reformer, safe environment crusader and thinker, is the recipient of India’s national award Padma Bhusan, Global Green Oscar titled Asden Golden Award, honorary doctorates from several universities including honorary fellowship from Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of the University of Glasgow. The Kshetra Dharmastala in Karnataka, which was an unknown village few years ago has become a unique identity to the region of Karnataka and occupies distinctive spot on the Indian map due to the transformation work carried out by visionary leadership of Dr Heggade. Today, the Kshetra Dharmastala offers to the people of every religion and caste a hope of better future and courage to live honorable and self respected lives.
The foremost initiative of Dr Heggade is the Rural Development Self Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) concept introduced in 1982. The concept has been borrowed and implemented by the Indian Government under the guidance of Dr Heggade. This experiment of unique nature in public – private partnership for social service is being implemented as a joint venture between Mr. Heggade’s institution and nationalized banks of India to train unemployed youths to become self-employed. As of now, RUDSETI has trained 2,90,000 youths of various villages in Karnataka.
Another well-known experiment of Dr Heggade, which was started in 1982, is the Shri Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP), which organizes small farmers and poor women into Self Help Groups (SHG) for accessing various services at their doorstep. This unique and first of its kind program has benefitted 1.8 million families in Karnataka.
Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) has been encouraging green initiatives and promoting sustainable energy solutions since 1986. It has lit more than 11,000 homes in 26 years through solar lighting and generation of power through micro hydel plants in remote areas. It has also provided 15,000 gobar gas units. All this good work has been carried out by thousands of social workers inspired by the good will of Dr Heggade. These social workers move to every household in the designated villages explaining the various programs and their benefits and motivate them to take part. Mr. Heggade feels that every success that he has achieved is pure sacrifice of these social workers.
Dr Heggade took the responsibility of “hereditary administrator” at the young age of 20 and contributed immensely to the field of education in Karnataka and has been patronizing and managing several educational institutions. He has established educations institutions from medical field to law and thus encouraging the youths of the region to obtain a suitable education to transform the society and nation. He has instituted hospitals to offer medical services from tuberculosis to any major ailments. These hospitals have top class medical staff many a times offering treatment free of cost to the needy.
Dr Heggade was the first Indian to introduce and carry out the mass weddings concept in India at The Kshetra Dharmastala which is a blessing to thousands of poor couples of the region without consideration of caste or creed. A dalit (schedule caste) and Brahmin (Upper caste) couples come together on a pre-determined day and perform marriage rituals. This program of 37 years has benefited thousands of couples.
Dr Heggade has also been nominated as the road safety ambassador by the Karnataka state department’s police department.
Dr Heggade is a shining example of religious harmony. While practicing Jain faith, he is the administrator of a Hindu temple. He is continuously working for the betterment of all sections of the society regardless of their religious identities.