Media Release

Mangalore, Nov 9: Verbattle 2010, the biggest state level debate tournament kicked off with the zonal selection round held at the Sarojini Kushe School, Attavar here.

Opening the debate competition, Justice Santosh Hegde called upon the young students to start developing the attitude to not accept corruption. While fighting it individually may not be possible, it would be wise for a group of youngsters to take up issues and represent a complaint with proof, he said.

Welcoming the participants, the founder of Verbattle, Deepak Thimaya, said that "there is nothing better than democracy’. He called upon the students to think rightly and understand the issues and act in the right perspective.

Answering a question in the interactive session that followed the inauguration, Justice Santosh Hegde said that it is not sufficient for people to simply ask questions for the sake of asking, or assuming hearsay to be true. It becomes a responsibility of all individuals to look into and substantiate their claims with proof.

Schools from Mangalore, Udupi, Chickmagalur, Brahmavar and Moodbidri among others participated in the competition.

A total of 20 teams have been selected to move to the state prelims to be held in Bangalore. The winners at the tournament will be given a cash prize of Rs 1 lac. Organised by Bangalore based T V House Network, Verbattle is into its sixth year.