Veerendra Heggade, Javare Gowda are twin Karnataka Ratnas

Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala Dr D Veerendra Heggade and Kannada litterateur D Javare Gowda were conferred with the Karnataka Ratna awards on Wednesday.

Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, who gave away the award, congratulated Heggade and Gowda. Speaking on the occasion, Yeddyurappa said the government would seek suggestions from experts in various fields to chalk out a comprehensive development vision for the state in the next two years.

Yeddyurappa appreciated Heggade’s contribution to rural development. “Whatever money was released to the gram panchayat and rural development schemes should have actually been given to Heggade. He would have shown better results,” said the chief minister.

Heggade said that that nearly 13 lakh families in the state were benefiting from the Dharmastalas Krishi Yojanas and the government should support more such programmes.

Gowda suggested the state government to give maximum jobs to Kannadigas and students from Kannada medium schools. He said that professional courses should be taught in Kannada, similar to the practice in Tamil Nadu were such subjects were being taught in Tamil.