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| Ex-ICCR region head caught in fresh controversies | | |
K. Koushal
Early Times Report
Jammu, June 8: After being thrown out as ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relation) regional director, Balwant Thakur, has been caught in series of allegations and corruption charges against him.
An RTI shot to Sangeet Natak Akademi by a disgruntled theatre group thrown out by the committee of experts of SNA for grant aid, of which Thakur is also a member expert, explicitly points towards Thakur's tenacity to keep genuine theatre workers at bay and promoting his own group Natrang and a couple of others few.
Ramesh Singh, director Bharatiya Kala Sangam was thrown out of the contention for a grant in aid by SNA for 2017-18 without citing any reason.
Even the SNA's RTI reply (under file no. RTI-291/2017-18/8647, dated March 14, 2018) to Ramesh Singh, could not cite any reason as to why Bharatiya Kala Sangam was not considered.
Here the most astonishing finding in the same SNA's list of beneficiaries of 2017-18 is that Thakur himself sanctioned Rs 1 lakh for children theatre for his Natrang followed by Natraj Natya Kunj (NNK) with Rs 70,000. NNK has been the frontrunner beneficiary under Balwant's ICCR theatre programmes at Abhinav theatre and at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University.
Further adding to the miseries of the hardworking theatre groups of Jammu, Balwant succeeded in SNA's expert committee meet for distributing share to both the regions of Jammu and Kashmir. Out of total 46 financial assistances to various groups Balwant offered 38 groups of Kashmir while Jammu got a shameful 9 only.
About using his influence in the bureaucracy, Balwant's Natrang never let any hardworking NGO approach forward to any government institution for a share, be it showcasing of Bawa Jitto at Jhiri festival every year or getting productions of the magnitude of Mata Ki Kahani for which department of Tourism has been very kind to him only, the reasons best known to the department.
When asked as to whether the department of Tourism approaches different theatre and art NGOs for showcasing multi-ethnical diversity of state on different festival occasion or what is the procedure adopted by the department in this case, director Tourism Smita Sethi said that theatre group of Balwant Thakur approached the department and gave their presentation upon which the play was selected. However, no tender or advertisement was released by the department for the information of other theatre groups for submitting their presentations and no other NGOs or theatre groups were approached by the department.
A recent update on a web portal on March 19, 2018 through an RTI by president Vilakshan Singh of Duggar Kranti Sena Trust available on all social media has specifically pinpointed Shrine Board's misuse of funds by donating an astronomical Rs 47 lakhs to Balwant Thakur's Natrang , for which Shri Mata Vaishno Devi has no provision in its guidelines .
Many of the local writers and art performers also allege that since Balwant Thakur does not have vision for art at any level and most of his works are either stolen or are the infringement of the copyright of the original tracks.
MI Dogra, a former Assistant Director Song and Drama Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Government of India and chairman Bhartiya Lok Sangeet Kala Santhan told Early Times alleged that play 'Mata Ki Khani' which was originally written and produced by him was "stolen by Balwant Thakur."
"We used to perform this act from 1995 to 2005 and submitted CDs, script along with audio of the play to the Tourism department and Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) for approval of their play. But Thakur has allegedly managed CDs and script from one of the offices and with little bit changes started performing this act that too with the assistance of SMVDSB and Tourism department", alleged Dogra.
Besides his professional cheatings and manipulations, Balwant as an individual too has a very dubious track record, a verbatim piece of which is reproduced here below for the readers as forwarded through a press release issued by Harish Kaila, eminent Dogra advocate of Navi Dogra Sanstha on January 25, 2018 to all media houses.
"The long list of controversies also contains a news report published on dated 16.11.1999 terming Balwant Thakur a crazy man as he was caught passing a lewd comment to a young female reporter publically that 'what if I allege that you have slept with so and so persons.' This had incited a strong reaction from the public via different editorials." |
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