Lecturers deputed for Hasanamba festival duty in Hassan

Hassan district administration has deputed 13 pre-university college lecturers from government colleges to handle public announcement systems on the Hasanamba temple premises during the Hasanamba festival, which begins on Thursday.

Hassan Deputy Commissioner K.S. Latha Kumari, in an order, formed the Hasanamba Utsava Information Announcers Management Team-2026 with 14 members, of whom 13 are lecturers. The lecturers have been directed to make public announcements instructing devotees waiting in queues on queue management, darshan timings and other arrangements.

The decision has not gone down well with the lecturers’ community. A group of lecturers, led by District Lecturers’ Association president Sanne Gowda, met Excise Minister K.M. Shivalinge Gowda, who is also the district in-charge Minister, and the Assistant Commissioner, who is the administrator of the temple, on Tuesday. They appealed for the order to be withdrawn, saying that engaging lecturers for such a long period would affect teaching.

“The Department of PU Education has instructed us to complete the syllabus before December and begin preparatory examinations. If lecturers are engaged in festival duty, teaching will suffer,” Mr. Sanne Gowda said.

The PU Department has often issued instructions restricting lecturers from taking up any work other than teaching. “We are not even allowed to attend the academic enhancement programmes organised by our lecturers’ forums, which are forced to conduct such activities on holidays. Yet the district administration has involved lecturers in festival duty,” pointed out a lecturer who did not wish to be named.