Belagavi: The state government celebrated the first Kadambotsava at Halasi village in 2014 due to a decade-long fight and pursuit of villagers. The kings of the Kadamba dynasty used Kannada as their official language in the 10th and 11th century. Halasi in Khanapur taluk, 35km from Belagavi, was their second capital. In 2014, the state government decided to celebrate Kadambotsava at Halasi every year.However, the lack of political will has meant that the celebrations haven’t taken place for the past three years. The state government has sanctioned Rs 10 lakh every year but it was unused due to local leaders opposing holding of a Kannada event in the Marathi dominated taluk. The money sanctioned by the government in 2017 and 2018 was returned as it was not used.According to sources, former MLA Arvind Patil of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti ( MES ) was not happy with the government’s decision to celebrate a Kannada programme in Khanapur taluk. Hence, he put pressure on local authorities and stopped the celebration from 2017.Although the current MLA is Anjali Nimbalkar from Congress, there are no signs of the return of Kadambotsava this year. The event was to be held in February, but no work has happened towards it. According to Kannada leader Ashok Chandaragi, there are no hopes that the utsav will be held this year as MLA Nimbalkar has time and again exhibited an anti-Kannada stand for the love of local Marathi votes. “Nimbalkar did not attend the Kannada Rajyothsava programme and the Khanapur taluk Kannada Sahitya Sammelana. She even openly demanded the government to provide government documents in Marathi to Marathi linguistics of border area,” he said.According to Kadambotsav organizing committee chairman N C Talawar, lack of political among local leaders is one of the major factors behind the Utsava being cancelled in the past three years. He demanded that the government to resume Utsava from this year. Anjali Nimbalkar did not respond to calls made by TOI.When asked, additional deputy commissioner H B Budeppa said he would check the facts with Kannada and culture department and take appropriate action.Halasi village has many ancient temples including Kalmeshwara, Suvarneshwara, Ramalingeshwara, Gokarneshwara, Kapileshwara, Swarneshwara, Hatakashwara, Bhuvaraha Sarasimha Swami temple and several Jain temples built during the Kadamba era.

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