MINISTER OF HOUSING & URBAN POVERTY ALLEVIATION AND CULTURE (KUMARI SELJA)
(a) to (f): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (f) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION
NO. 208 FOR 16th AUGUST, 2011
(a) & (b): Yes, Sir. In August, 2010, Ministry of Culture set up a Committee
on Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) which was chaired by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Dr. Sitakant Mahapatra and Shri Amol Palekar were the other members of this
Committee. The Committee was required to look into the functioning and performance
of the seven ZCCs. Its terms of reference included an examination of action taken
on the recommendations of an earlier Committee on the subject that was constituted
in the year 1994 under the chairmanship of Prof. U. R. Ananthamurthy. The Committee
has submitted its Report on 11th April, 2011, wherein it has made various
recommendations for structural and functional changes in the existing set u
of the ZCCs. These include restructuring of the Governing Body and Executive
Board of the ZCCs; setting up of an Indian Council of Zonal Cultural Centres and
a Folk & Tribal Akademi; enhancing of the existing Corpus Fund of the ZCCs; enhancing
the remuneration of folk and tribal artistes; revamping the Guru Shishya Parampara
Scheme; undertaking cultural propagation primarily in villages, mofussil areas and
city slums; and organizing Apna Utsav and Yatras to mark the Silver Jubilee of the ZCCs.
Before taking a view on the recommendations of the Committee, Ministry of
Culture has forwarded the Report to all State Governments, ZCCs, concerned Ministries
and organizations and also placed it on the website of the Ministry
(www.indiaculture.nic.in) to seek views and comments of all the stakeholders.
(c): No, Sir.
(d): Does not arise.
(e): The Government had provided an initial contribution of Rs. 5 crores to the
corpus of each ZCC which was enhanced to Rs. 10 crores in the year 2005-06. This
strengthened the resource base of the ZCCs. In addition, several new schemes,
such as Theatre Rejuvenation Scheme, Young Talented Artistes’ Scheme and Guru
Shishya Parampara Scheme, have been introduced in all the ZCCs over the last
10 years, which are funded from the Plan budget of the Ministry of Culture.
‘OCTAVE’, a major festival representing the art and culture of the 8 North
Eastern States has been introduced and has been organized by the ZCCs at several
places across the country.
(f): The position of funds allocated to the ZCCs and spent by them over the
preceding 3 years and the current year is as under:
(Rs. in Lakhs)
Sl. No. Name of ZCC 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Relea- Spent Relea- Spent Relea- Spent Relea- Spent sed sed sed sed so far
1 NZCC, Patiala 292.00 304.89 234.14 282.90 320.00 300.00 277.40 30.00
2 WZCC, Udaipur 452.94 427.68 274.93 277.21 326.00 345.36 288.00 32.40
3 SZCC, Thanjavur 239.16 244.25 331.76 273.56 198.57 273.56 176.03 10.62
4 EZCC, Kolkata 557.69 607.04 342.19 179.36 243.73 421.52 319.97 55.85
5 SCZCC, Nagpur 322.00 310.94 174.80 129.33 307.95 346.95 265.54 31.04
6 NCZCC, 316.49 178.90 240.58 172.71 416.15 315.02 255.00 71.28 Allahabad
7 NEZCC, Dimapur 435.91 435.91 518.00 393.00 532.76 614.88 324.62 123.82
Total 2616.19 2509.61 2116.40 1708.07 2345.16 2617.29 1906.56 355.01
