Cultural centre to award folk artistes
A meeting of the Board of Governors of the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC), Union Ministry of Culture, was held under the chairpersonship of Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria in Udaipur today. The Governor is ex-officio Chairperson of the NZCC.
Kataria will give away young artistes’ honour award and lifetime achievement award to senior folk artistes of the NZCC during Chandigarh Craft Fair scheduled to be held from November 29 to December 8.
The folk artistes awards were instituted last year. This year at the initiation of the Governor and Chairperson, NZCC, two awards for young folk artistes have also been instituted.
The Board of Governors also approved the recommendations made by the Finance Committees and Executive Board of NZCC that include approval of Rs 23 crore as expenditure during 2023-24 for programmes/activities and non-programme sides; and budget approval amounting to Rs 16 crore for organisation of programmes/activities and non-programme sides during 2024-25. The Governor also directed that all art forms should be given proper weightage, keeping in view of the basic mandate of the Zonal Cultural Centres.
A documentary on ‘Pandav Leela’, Uttarakhand, was screened at the meeting along with glimpses of major programmes and festivals organised last year by the NZCC. NZCC Director Furqan Khan explained the working of the centre and financial position through a power point presentation.
Khan apprised the House that the Ministry of Culture has enhanced the rates of honorarium for all genre of artistes, which has been implemented from this Financial Year. The House appreciated the effort of Ministry of Culture.
Amita Prasad Sarbhai, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture, joined the meeting online and suggested that member states and NZCC should work in close coordination so that real artistes can be benefitted from the schemes of Ministry of Culture.
Kataria congratulated NZCC Director and his team for hard work and maintaining transparency in its daily affairs.
Among other present in the meeting were Amrit Singh, IAS, Director, Department of Tourism & Cultural Affairs, Punjab; Hari Kallikkat, Secretary, Department of Cultural Affairs, UT; Dr Pankaj Lalit, Director, Department of Language & Culture, Himachal Pradesh; Harvinder Kour, JKAS, Secretary, J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages; Paviter Singh, Director Industries, UT; Nazir Hussain, Deputy Secretary, Ladakh Academy of Art, Culture & Languages, Kargil, Ladakh etc.
