Tiatrists yet to be paid for carnival performance

Tiatrists yet to be paid for carnival performance
HERALDR REPORTER
MARGAO, SEPT 17
It’s six months since the three day Carnival festivities ended in the commercial capital, but producers and directors of traditional Khel Tiatr still left in the lurch with the Margao civic body dilly dallying on the question of payments for staging the tiatr during the festival.
If the khel tiatr producers are to be believed, they have been doing repeated rounds in the corridors of the civic body since the last day of Carnival, but they are yet to receive the payments amounting to Rs 1.87 lakh – the amount the civic body owes them for staging the Khel Tiatr across the Municipal wards during the Carnival festivities.
Friday saw a delegation of Khel Tiatr producers calling on the Margao Municipal Chairperson seeking to know the fate of their payments delayed since the last six months.
“We have been knocking the doors of the Margao Municipal building since the last six months, but in vain. All we have received over this period is only assurances and promises,” remarked Sannny de Maina.
He maintained that various artists who acted in the plays along with the musicians approach the directors for the payments. “We are helpless. When we call on the MMC Chairperson, he only tells us to come tomorrow,” he added.
MMC Chairperson Savio Coutinho said the payments are delayed this year on account of the inordinate delays by the Tourism Department in sanctioning the funds. “Unlike previous years, this year’s carnival organization was given to an event management company by the Tourism Department. As per the condition, we were not authorized to collect any sponsors and the entire cost and expenditure was to be borne by the Tourism Department,” Coutinho said.
He said that the Tourism Department has promised to release the funds within the next few days, adding that the money would be disbursed to the khel tiatr producers immediately.