BANGALORE: The Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat Trust has sought the intervention of the Government to protect the interests of the faction-ridden Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat in accordance with the Societies Act, which empowers the Government to either take over an institution or appoint a custodian.

The former Chairman of the Legislative Council and Congress leader B.L. Shankar told presspersons here on Friday that the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat Trust and the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat were two separate bodies working in tandem.

`Government has the right'

The Government had a right to intervene as it had provided infrastructure to the parishat such as land (the lease expired on April 30) and annual grants. The collection of paintings, artefacts and other art material worth over Rs. 350 crore were the property of the Chitrakala Parishat Trust, he said.

The affairs of the parishat took an unsavoury turn after the death of its founder secretary, M.S. Nanjunda Rao. His daughter Sridevi Rao and a group of her supporters started creating problems, he alleged.

Questioning the validity of the recent resolution of the executive committee of the parishat replacing him as president of the parishat with K.M. Saroja Nanjappa, he asserted that he continued to be president of the parishat as he had been elected to the post.

He claimed that the property of the Trust was in danger and day-to-day administration had been affected. The credibility of the parishat at the international level was in jeopardy. He listed the development activities and the revenue raising programmes launched in the past two years.

The vice-president of the Trust, H.K. Kejriwal, and the former secretary D.K. Chowta were present.

Rifts

The Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat had been facing divisions among its office-bearers and protests from students of its College of Fine Arts since October 2005.

The president of the M.S. Nanjunda Rao Foundation, Sridevi Rao, and the former vice-president of the parishat Mohan Dev Alva had opposed the reported attempts to commercialise the parishat. They had charged that AHINDA was allowed to hold its political meetings on the premises of the Trust and Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna, who was the president of the Chitrakala Parishat Trust, and Mr. Shankar were behind it.

On November 30, 2005 a press release signed by 12 members of the executive committee said that the committee met on November 25 with the president, Mr. Shankar, in the chair and unanimously decided to accept the resignation of the general secretary Mr. Chowta. But, she alleged, Mr. Shankar was not willing to accept the resignation for mysterious reasons.

On April 30, 2006, the new general secretary, Kamalakshi, said that the illegal actions of Mr. Shankar and Mr. Chowta necessitated the extreme action. She charged that they had made attempts to transfer the land leased by the Government to the parishat to the Trust.

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