Hindustan Times: Dehradun: Tuesday, February 06, 2018.
Almost two
years after he was assigned to produce a musical docudrama on Kedarnath shrine,
which was ravaged by flash floods in 2013, singer Kailash Kher submitted final
digital disk of his work before the state government on Monday.
Part of
singer’s professional fee is pending with the Department of Information and
Public Relations (DIPR).
The
department has asked him to first give the final work and submit no objection
certificate (NOC) from the eminent faces like cine star Amitabh Bachchan,
drummer Shiva Mani besides others who have contributed in Kher’s work.
Kher
submitted his work to director general of DIPR Pankaj Pande.
“Kailash Kher
has submitted final CD, raw footage as well as NOC. We sought NOC so that we
don’t face legal tangle in future as all the artists have high commercial
value” said Ashish Tripathi, joint director (DIPR).
Kher has been
in news for all odd reasons ever since the erstwhile Congress government
decided to pay him an undisclosed professional fee for the work to his company
– Kailasha Entertainment Private Limited.
According to
information collected under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, Kher was paid
to the tune of ₹3.66 crore from the funds meant for the reconstruction of
Kedarnath shrine.
The ruling
BJP which was then in opposition alleged ₹12 crore had been paid to the
singer’s firm. But the after assuming power in March last year, the party said
it was okay if the government pays remaining fee to the singer from ‘other’
head.
“Our
objection (on payment) was confined to the misuse of reconstruction funds,” BJP
state president Ajay Bhatt said justifying the party’s stand.
The musical
docudrama presented by the singer has 12 episodes with each having 40 minutes
of duration. Interestingly, the BJP government is still clueless how and where
to showcase the artist’s work.
Tripathi said
a decision on this will be taken “soon”. “The DIPR will soon decide on airing
(the episodes of Shivoham) produced by Kher,” said the joint director.
Kedarnath
remained on priority of Harish Rawat after he took over as the chief minister
in 2014. The Congress government showcased the Kedarnath reconstruction works
as its major achievement.
The BJP
government is toying on the same line, too.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, during a visit to Kedarnath in October last year,
stressed on accelerating the pace of remaining works in the shrine town.
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