Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday announced that the birth anniversary of Sri Siddalinga Swami of Tontadarya Mutt in Gadag will be celebrated as ‘Integration Day’ and a government order in this regard would be soon.
He was addressing a public gathering after inaugurating the Aikya Mantapa, the structure built around the place where the mortal remains of the seer were buried on the Tontadarya Mutt premises in Gadag on Friday.
The Chief Minister said: “It is our duty to celebrate his birthday meaningfully. He was a great thinker and philosopher. He could have built huge structures and institutions. But the seer was committed to building a harmonious society and the welfare of the society and he dedicated whole life for it”.
Referring to the successful ‘Save Kappatagudda’ movement that the seer led, which forced the Government to declare it a wildlife sanctuary, Mr. Bommai said that the seer had immense concern for the environment and had involved himself in building of tanks in the region.
The CM also referred to the participation of the seer in the Gokak movement for the cause of Kannada. “Even Kannada matinee idol and icon Rajkumar was inspired by the seer’s oratory skills during the Gokak agitation,” he said.
Mr. Bommai said that the seer was true example of the ‘life after death of the achievers’. The seer always recognised people working silently and brought out scores of literary works that had social reform as its core.
Chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti, Public Works Minister C.C. Patil, and others were present.
