3 cultural academies sans academicians for 4 years

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, December 18

There is no member in the Academic Assembly and Council of major three academies of the country for about last four years. However, the government has gone ignoring such a serious issue of appointing officials of both categories in those academies.

Nepal Academy, Fine Arts Academy, and Music and Performance Art Academy are running without assembly and council members since May 8, 2006, according to the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture.

"The government has failed to manage these academic bodies by fulfilling the vacant posts," said Jala Krishna Shrestha, joint-secretary and the spokesperson for culture in the ministry. "This is one of the evidences of the government apathy regarding the culture, which is a very important heritage of the country," he said.

The NA is constituted of 39-member Academic Assembly and 11 members in the Council while the FAA and the MPAA are respectively constituted of 28 members in the Assembly and 9 members in the Council each. Both of the bodies are headed by the Chairman and the General Manager each respectively.

Harihar Sharma, administrator at the NA, said that there was no work in the academy except receiving the monthly salaries and running daily administration. "No academic activities have been performed in the academy due to the absence of the responsible body members," he said. "It has been very painful to come to the office and go to home daily without any performance because of the lack of works in the office," he added.

Prakash Darnal, chief archeology officer at the MoFACAPAC, said that the Maoist led government attempted to appoint officials in those posts about a year ago but without regular procedure. The case files were lodged in the Supreme Court against the Maoist move and then the SC ordered to cancel the appointments.

The SC has already cleared the road for the government to appoint officials in the NA but the cases of FAA and MPAA are still on process. "The Ministry forwarded a proposal of the committee formation for the NA to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers a few months ago," said Darnal. "However, it is still unnoticed," he added.

Darnal was worried of the performance of the ministry about the culture for last two years. "It is out of road of the conservation and development," he said. "The Cultural Corporation has been padlocked owing to the appointment row recently," he added.

Politics is more dominant in the ministry than the concern of culture. "The combination of different affairs in the ministry has cornered the cultural issues," said Shrestha. "The culture related activities are being performed by other ministries and we are detached from the mainstream," he added.

Minister Dr Minendra Rijal is on foreign visits presently and frequently at a time when all of the works are on hold in the ministry, according to the ministry officials.