kozhikode political parties are known to promise people the moon in their election manifestos but this time the ruling congress partys manifesto in pollbound karnataka has promised to introduce kerala school kalolsavam billed as the largest school fest in asia in karnataka if the party is voted to power the manifesto says that having a statelevel mega school arts festival like the one in kerala and incentivizing participation of students by giving grace marks in sslc will lead to promotion of indigenous arts and culture and produce quality talent in the state kerala school kalolsavam is an annual event conducted by the state government that features several art competitions for high school and higher secondary school students of kerala the event usually conducted in december or january began in 1956karnataka will provide one of the biggest platforms for children who have interest in arts and culture by launching a statelevel mega youth festival like the one in kerala starting from schoollevel and progressing through subdistrict district and nally culminating at the statelevel the fest will give children a chance to experience each others culture and arts thereby adding to the longterm goal of improving social harmony and pluralism in our society said the manifesto in its youth and employment sectionthe proposal was mooted by some keralite professionals in karnataka who are associated with all india professional congress aipc their proposal was accepted by the manifesto drafting committeekarnataka does not have a grand stage like the mega state school youth festival there are not many avenues for students to take their artistic pursuits beyond interschool competitions we submitted the proposal to replicate kerala school kalolsavam in karnataka and it has found its space in the manifesto said subash babu an it professional from palakkad who is also the vicepresident of aipcs bengaluru south chapterkerala general education secretary a shajahan said that it is a positive development that kalolsavam has found a mention in the election manifesto of another state till date we have seen 58 editions of the festival and it has grown in size and stature over the years during the past five years it is being organized with budgetary support from the government many states had sent their education officials to witness the festival in previous years with the idea of replicating it in their states he saiddirector of public instructions kv mohan kumar said that the festival which had seen the participation of around 12000 students last year and lakhs of students in the school sub district and district levels has been able to put in place a mechanism to ensure strong student focus and constant qualitative improvement