500 artistes, literati shortlisted for monthly stipends

PESHAWAR: The Directorate of Culture on Thursday shorted listed 500 artistes and literati for the monthly stipend.

“Yes, a summery has been forwarded to the Finance Department seeking the early release of funds. We will start paying stipends to the selected group of artistes and literati as soon as we received the amount,” said an official.

The government had launched the initiative in 2016 wherein 500 artistes and literati had been paid the much needed money. However, the process was discontinued in the current fiscal due to non-availability of required funds. Under the programme, Rs30,000 will be paid to the artistes and literati as stipend per month.

The initiative was aimed at providing financial support to people associated with languages and literature, performing art and visual art to compensate them as the entertainment industry was hit hard due to the long years of militancy.

Assistant Director, Directorate of Culture, Riaz Khan, said that 2,600 candidates had applied for the stipends and 500 were selected after a thorough scrutiny.

He said the scrutiny process was time consuming as only the genuine artistes and literati were shortlisted to make the process transparent.

The official said that several employees of the Culture Directorate and other government departments had applied for the stipends. “We thoroughly scrutinised the applications to ensure that no underserving person could avail the benefits,” he added.

The officer said that all the necessary procedures had been completed and they were awaiting the release of the required funds by the Finance Department to start paying the stipends to the beneficiaries.

Riaz Khan said the directorate had sent a summery to the Finance Department to release Rs150 million for the purpose. He said that it was a temporary programme.

“The incumbent provincial government has started the programme to provide temporary relief to the artistes and literary. It would be up to the next government whether or not it continue the programme,” he added.

Riaz Khan was confident that the funds for the programme would be released in the first week of April.

Director Takhleeq Development Foundation and famous Pashto drama artiste Arshad Hussain appreciated the initiative but said that it was an interim relief.

“Steps are needed to revive the entertainment industry and enable it to stand on its own feet,” he stressed.

Arshad said that a number of factors contributed to the downfall of the entertainment industry in the province. “Militancy and lack of innovation are the major causes of decline of the industry. The production of low quality plays, films and other related material and script writing are the other factors which resulted in the squeezing of the industry,” he added.

The actor said that the artistes lacked work and there were very little opportunities for the people associated with the entertainment industry.

Arshad Hussain said that neither the national television, radio nor the private TV channels were investing in this sector.

He said the stipends were not a permanent solution to the problem. “The government should start a social security system for artistes as it has done for the employees of other departments,” he suggested.

He said government should give special concessions to artistes in airline tickets, health, tuitions fees of their children and others. Other artistes and literary also expressed similar views and called for restoration of the process without any further delay.