NIZAMABAD:While Nizamabad has traditional cultural artistes, various government departments have been training their own cultural troupes resulting in local artistes not getting government jobs.Earlier, under the directions of Information and Cultural Affairs Department, artistes of popular art forms were put under a test after which they could perform with a troupe of six members.
Every artiste in each troupe was supposed to get `500. “All the artistes of the 30 art forms popular in the district have benefitted from it,” an official said.Then, after the Samskruthika Sarathi was formed by the department, only 16 members were brought together as a troupe and were given a fixed salary. The rest of them, meanwhile, are still struggling for an opportunity.
The department, a year ago, had also decided to create a database of all artistes and planned to impart training to some people to recognise these art forms. However, this has been limited to the department headquarters in Hyderabad, said an artiste.
Denying that the artistes are not being recognised, the Nizamabad Information Department deputy director Muhammad Murtaza said that pensions were provided to 135 cultural artistes and opportunities are being created under the supervision of Language and Culture department, Hyderabad.