From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Mar 22: Karnataka Government's move to entrust Venktappa Art Gallery(VAG) to a private entity came under fire in the Legislative Assembly forcing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to assure that he would hold one more meeting with artistes to remove their apprehensions. 

Raising the issue during the 'Zero Hour', leader of the opposition Jagadish Shettar and BJP MLA Suresh Kumar accused the state government of signing an MoU with a private firm to privatise VAG. 

The MoU, they said, would enable the private firmw to have complete control of the art gallery and deprive the emerging artists of a forum to showcase their talent.

They questioned the decision to the state government to shift VAG from the domain of Kannada and Culture department to Tourism department.

"The MoU should be scrapped and VAG should be reverted back to Kannada and Culture department," they demanded.

Karnataka’s Industry and Tourism Minister R V Deshpande denied that the private firm would adopt and maintain VAG under its Corporate  Social Responsibility initiative. 

The fee collected from visitors and other revenue accrued would be utilised for maintenance of VAG, he promised.

Deshpande and Siddaramaiah assured that the interest of the artists would be protected and one meeting would be held with the protesting artists before proceeding ahead in this regard.