Hassan: Although Kannada was declared a classical language a decade ago, not enough research has gone into it mainly due to the poor funds allocated to the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada here by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD).
The Rs 1 crore that the centre receives annually is not enough to meet its requirements for research, complain its officials, who are now pinning their hopes on the state government coming forward to fund its research programmes. "We plan to approach the state government soon," reveals an official.
Unfortunately, the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada has been functioning from the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru since it opened in 2011 and doesn't have a building of its own as yet.
"We need five acres in Mysuru city for an independent building. If the state government provides it, the Union government will construct the building in no time," add the officials, who believe this will help the centre lobby for an autonomous status to give impetus to research on Kannada.
"We need a library for our 5,000 books and the reference books of researchers, besides individual rooms for the linguistic, translation and literature wings of the centre. This can be possible only if we have an independent building," they explain.
It was in the 2016-17 academic year that five researchers began their work at the Mysuru centre. Although one of them left mid-way , the four others have completed their work, which will be published in the form of books shortly.
Ten more researchers are likely to join the centre for the 2017-18 academic year.
