Tourism Department clarifies on Shirock 2022 prize row
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, August 07 2022: The Tourism Department on Sunday clarified on blacklisting of Gigbox Productions Private Limited for mismanagement of Shirock 2022 and the allegations regarding the non-payment of prize money to the winners of the Shirock competition.

In a press conference held at the department, commission -er (tourism) PK Jha stated that Shirui Lily Festival 2022 was a major success with visitors com ing from all over India and other countries, but on August 4, the winning rock band of Shirock 2022 'Prophets' posted on social media that they were yet to receive the prize money for the competition after almost two months.

He continued that the first meeting of organising commit tee was held on April 20, 2022 under the chairpersonship of the chief minister in the presence of ministers, MLAs of Ukhrul district, officials of various departments as well as some of civil organisations of Ukhrul district and five sub-committees namely executive committee, reception sub committee, entertainment sub-committee, cultural sub-committee and district level co-ordination sub-committee were formed.

"These committees were chaired by MLAs and the incident which has been brought to our notice relates to the Entertainment Sub-Committee.

This particular event in question was organised by the entertainment sub-committee and the fund was also allocated through the district administration for various events.

The overall budget for Shirui Lily Festival 2022 was Rs 3.5 crore, and considering the importance of the festival, the chief minister of Manipur decided to increase the budget for the Shirock event by Rs 1 crore so the total overall budget for the entire event is Rs 4.5 crore," the commissioner explained.

He also stated that out of the entire amount, Rs 3.5 crore was released by the government in two instalments (40% and 60% respectively) and the corresponding amount was released to different sub-committees, departments, firms, etc., on May 21 and July 18 respectively by the department.

An amount of Rs 2 crore was allocated to the entertainment sub committee out of which a sum of Rs 1,55,55,555 was released for the sub committee.

The balance amount was to be paid after submission of the final bills/vouchers and the amount released to the committee was more than 3/4th of the total amount.

The department (tourism) expected that the various committees would utilise the funds rationally and evenly distributed amongst vendors/ participants, PK Jha elaborated further.

The commissioner clarified that the event management in question was not hired by the department but was identified and selected by the entertainment sub-committee.

"However, the matter has caused embarrassment for the government as well as for the department, and after organising such a successful event with co-operation from all the stakeholders concerned, it is unfortunate that we got a bad name and we have taken certain actions im mediately," he added.

"When we learnt that the payment which was to be done through the event management group of the entertainment sub-committee has not been made, we got in touch with the senior officials from the government of Mizoram through the director (tourism).

Thereafter, we have immediately paid the payment for the prize money directly though it was to be done by the event management group of the entertainment sub-committee," the commissioner clarified further.

"The Prophets has thanked us for the immediate intervention and updated the same on their social media pages.

However, considering the lapses committed by the event management company, we have blacklisted the company from participating in any events organised by this department.

Further, we have requested the deputy commissioner for the bank account details, statements and to see how the funds have been utilised and which vendors have received how much amount of the funds released to them.

If we feel it necessary we will not hesitate to take further action against the event management company.

We are fully committed to organising all our events in a fully transparent manner and all our accounts are open for scrutiny and there is nothing under the carpet and at the same time this event management company has not been hired by us and we have no official interaction with them but still we have taken action as they have brought a bad name to the state," the tourism commissioner reiterated.

Meanwhile, the director of tourism department said that the matter was a huge embarrassment for the state as well as the department, but it had been resolved after a quick intervention by the department.

He then appealed to the general public to help stop the spread of further negative remarks regarding the incident.

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