The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `Foreign jaunt in the name of culture'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 23, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Foreign jaunt in the name of culture'

Staff Reporter

Don't waste public money: MLCs

BANGALORE: The Government will put in place a policy to select persons to represent the State in cultural conferences and events organised by private organisations in other parts of the country and abroad, Minister for Kannada and Culture H.S. Mahadeva Prasad has said.

Replying to a question by Manohar Maski (BJP), the Minister said the Government had sent 59 persons, including four officials, to the U.S. to represent the State at Kannada conferences organised by the America Kannada Kootagala Aagara (AKKA) in Orlando and Washington in 2004 (21 persons) and 2006 (38 persons). It had incurred an expenditure of Rs. 15.14 lakh for the first event and Rs. 32.74 lakh for the second, he said.

Mr. Maski said the Government had not selected anyone from the Hyderabad Karnataka region for the foreign jaunt and asked whether there were any guidelines or policy for selecting deserving persons from the different regions of the State.

Srinath and `Mukhyamantri' Chandru (BJP) and Umasri (Congress) criticised the Government for encouraging private events with public money. Getting an invitation for AKKA conferences had become a racket, they alleged.

Mr. Chandru and others said the biannual Kannada conventions organised by AKKA had become a foreign tour programme in the name of culture. Where was the need for the Government to meet the travel expenses of people just because they were invited by a private organisation abroad, they asked.

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