Irregularities in the "Lalit Kala Akademi

The famous cultural organisation of India, Lalit Kala Akademi's (LKA) office bearer's came under fire by its General Council today and demanded that its Chairman and Secretary should removed from their posts.

Akademi's, Council member Srikant Pandey said, ''There has been a huge embezzlement of funds and the LKA administration is trying to cover it up.''

At present, Ashok Vajpeyi is the Chairman and Sudhakar Sharma is the Secretary of LKA.

''The Chairman and Secretary keep demanding unnecessary funds in the name of maintaining cars and hiring taxis. But, separate allowances are given to the Akademi by the Government for the purpose. They are filling their own pockets,'' he alleged.

Amitav Bhowmick, another Council member, said, ''The Akademi has shown an expenditure of Rs 8.5 lakh on the maintenance of a cycle and asked do they expect us to believe that?''

The LKA Secretary, who belongs to National Gallery of Modern Art, actually joined on probation, Mr Pandey claimed, ''The Gallery has written several letters to him ordering him to join back. But, he refuses to do so.''

''Also, the Chairperson is not eligible to hold his post since he is a poet and has no relationship with visual arts which is a criterion,'' he charged.

Regarding a petition submitted in 2008 to the Secretary, the Culture Ministry by Mr Pandey seeking an explanation of the alleged irregularities, his lawyer Satya Mitra said, ''In an order on January 22, Justice S Murlidhar of the Delhi High Court has directed the Ministry to respond within two weeks. But, we have still not got any explanation.''

''We sensed the financial and administrative irregularities long ago and tried to raise the issue in all our General Body meetings. But we were silenced. Even media persons who tried to highlight the issue were threatened,'' Mr Pandey asserted.

He also informed the media that General Council members from across the country had sent a copy of the alleged irregularities to the Culture Ministry, Director of National Gallery of Modern Art, Director General of Audit, Central Revenues and Central Vigilance Commission.

- Asian Tribune -