SHILLONG, March 12: The Opposition UDP on Tuesday suggested to the Executive Committee (EC) of the Khasi Hills Autonomous (KHADC) to earmark special funds for the Monolith Festival.
Raising the issue during the ongoing Budget session of the KHADC, Leader of Opposition Titosstarwell Chyne said that albeit he is mindful of the funding from the Tourism department for the recently concluded Monolith Festival, he contended that the Council cannot completely depend on the state government for funds to successfully conduct the festival.
“It will send a very bad message… Therefore, we need to earmark funds for the festival so that we can hold the festival annually,” Chyne said.
He also questioned who would take care of the maintenance of the Khasi Heritage Village at Mawphlang.
According to him, the Hima Mawphlang had earlier proposed to allow the Hima to take care of Khasi Heritage Village.
Informing that the Hima had even agreed to have a model where the revenue will be shared between the Council and the Hima, Chyne continued, “We will need to explore this option to ease the burden on the Council.”
In his reply, KHADC Deputy CEM Pynshngain N Syiem informed that the Executive Member in-charge of Arts and Culture, Victor Ranee will soon convene a meeting of the coordination committee of the Monolith Festival and deliberate ways to maintain the Khasi Heritage Village.
He said that they would also explore the possibility of having a management team since neither the Council nor the Hima Mawphlang has the expertise to take care or look after the infrastructure at the Khasi Heritage village.
“We will have to decide on this matter before the arrival of the monsoon,” he said.
Syiem also informed that the Council had spent around Rs 10 lakh for the Monolith Festival since maximum funding had been taken care by the Meghalaya Age Limited.
