Akademies Likely
to Be in For a Culture Shock
Culture min readies terms of
engagement; review of memorandums of association envisages better
accountability for autonomous organisations
The culture ministry is preparing new
terms of engagement with all autonomous cultural akademies in its bid to
curtail their `discretionary powers' and bring in more checks and balances, a
year after it took over the administration of the Lalit Kala Akademi amid
charges of irregularities. Various cultural akademies have come on the PMO
radar, with a meeting late last month by the PMO to review them.
The
culture ministry is quietly putting together a plan to review the Memorandums
of Associations with all cultural akademies organisations that it funds. The
first off the block will be Lalit Kala Akademi and the new MoA being drafted
for it is being envisaged as a model MoA. This model MoA aims at bringing in
better accountabili ty across the autonomous organisations, a ministry insider
told ET.
The
move also comes at a time when the finance ministry has asked all government
departments and ministries to assess all funded autonomous institutions under
them and review the applicability of user charges there.
There
are a number of autonomous cultural organisations -akademies, museums, libraries
and cultural centres -under the aegis of the culture ministry and most are
fully funded by it.
The
functions of the organisation are set down in the MoA. The government feels the
scope of discretionary powers given to the organisation through the existing
MoA is not adequately balanced through better accountability mechanisms. Many
of these organisation are even caught in legal tussles due to these issues,
sources said.
The
MoA typically grants the akademi substantial independence in taking decisions
related to national and international exhibitions, events as well as providing
financial assistance to artists and art organisations through scholarships and
grants.
Among
the prominent akademies under the ministry are Lalit Kala Akademi, Sahitya
Aakdemi, Sangeet Natak Akademi and the National School of Drama.
The
Lalit Kala Akademi has been most in news. The ministry took over the
administration of the Akademi on April 1, 2015, citing complaints of
administrative and financial irregularities.
While
a joint secretaryadditio nal secretary from the ministry has held charge of the
Akademi so far, recently, the ministry appoin ted a new administrator for it
-an arrangement that could last until 2018 if the government does not go ahead
with a full-fledged selection process to reinstall the usual ad ministrative
structure.
Source | Economic TImes | 22 November 2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
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