Demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes is likely to affect 82nd Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelan scheduled to be held in the first week of December in Raichur in more than one way. As per well-placed sources closely associated with the organisation of the literary event, the target of mobilising Rs. 2 crore from local sources cannot be met as the potential donors - businessmen, rice mill owners, traders and alike – themselves are in financial trouble.
“Businessmen usually donate in cash as they have huge unaccounted money which is normally in the form of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes. With the demonetisation of these high value notes, they are unable to make donations. They are not so generous to donate their accounted money through cheques and electronic transfer. The major source of fund mobilisation has thus dried up with the demonetisation,” an organiser associated with the Sammelana activities said.
Sasikanth S. Senthil, Deputy Commissioner of Raichur, who looks after financial matters, is confident of organising the literary event with the funds provided by the State government. He is of the opinion that Rs. 4 crore that the government has allocated for the event is a “decent amount” for neat conduct of the event. Considering the demonetisation and resultant crunch of fund mobilisation, he has approached the potential donors appealing to them to offer their contributions in the form of goods and services required for the event instead of cash donations.
“Hundreds of hotel rooms have been booked for providing accommodation to guests. In a normal condition, we would have collected donations and pay for the rooms. Now, upon our request in view of demonetisation, the hotel owners have agreed to provide rooms free of cost. Similarly, several other responsibilities and tasks that require money are being entrusted to many people,” Mr. Senthil told The Hindu .
Vishnukanth Budadi of Shilpa Medicare Limited and Raichur Rice Millers Association have similarly agreed to provide food to guests and general public for three days, Mahantesh Maski, former district president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat said.
In order to manage with limited financial resources, the organising committee is planning drop many proposals to cut costs. “We will have to use the funds judiciously. We will put money on unavoidable expenditure such as erecting stage and cultural teams. We may have to avoid providing jackets to mediapersons and other such expenditures,” Mr. Senthil said.
Using the surplus money after the Sammelana, a Kannada Bhavana is normally built for the parishat at the town where sahitya sammelan is organised. But this time, the organisers are not sure that they can save some money for purpose.
