Sanatan Prabhat Exclusive : Apathy towards Sanskrut in Maharashtra, awards might be discontinued due to lack of funds
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By Pritam Nachankar
Mumbai – Due to the lack of funding by the State Government, the ‘Mahakavi Kalidas Sanskrit Sadhana Award’ in Maharashtra is on the verge of discontinuation. Trusting the ministers’ promises of grants, the ‘Kavi Kalidas Sanskrut University’ self-funded the awards for six years from 2015 to 2021, actually presenting them in 2021. Three years have passed since then but the Government still hasn’t reimbursed the university for the prize money and event expenses. The Government owes the university Rs 18.17 lakhs for these awards. Meanwhile, crores of rupees are being spent annually on the promotion of Urdu.
The award is given by the State Higher and Technical Education Department. In 2021, during an event attended by the then Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant, the overdue awards for six years from 2015-2021 were presented. Minister Samant advised the University to bear all expenses assuring to reimburse them later, but the university has not yet received any reimbursement. Currently, BJP’s Chandrakant Patil is the Minister of Higher and Technical Education Department. The university has repeatedly followed up the matter with him, but the grant is yet to be released.
No Awards Without Funding : Kavi Kalidas Sanskrut University, Nagpur
A representative of ‘Sanatan Prabhat’ contacted the Sanskrut Department of Kavi Kalidas Sanskrut University regarding the awards, when the officials stated that the university has not yet received any funds spent on previous awards from the Government. As a result, the university has taken a firm stand of not presenting awards till the grants are received.
Crores for Urdu Annually, But Disregard for Sanskrut
Since 2015, the Maharashtra Government has allocated Rs 29.60 crore for the promotion of Urdu by establishing ‘Urdu Bhavans’ and provided an additional Rs 5.25 crore to the Urdu Academy for promoting Urdu literature. But the Government has not provided the annual grant of even Rs 1.50 lakh required for the ‘Mahakavi Kalidas Sanskrut Sadhana Awards’, the only major award presented for promoting Sanskrut in a year.
Annual Government grants for the promotion of Urdu :
Year |
Grant for Urdu Bhavans (in Rs) |
Grant for Urdu Academy (in Rs) |
| 2014-15 | 1.88 crore | 68 lakh |
| 2015-16 | 2.24 crore | – |
| 2016-17 | 4.40 crore | 60 lakh |
| 2017-18 | 4.07 crore | 50 lakh |
| 2018-19 | 5.23 crore | 44 lakh |
| 2019-20 | 4.10 crore | 52 lakh |
| 2020-21 | 3.27 crore | 73 lakh |
| 2021-22 | 3.50 crore | 65 lakh |
| 2022-23 | 2.93 crore | 55 lakh |
| 2023-24 |
4.08 crore | 45 lakh |
No increase in the amount of Sanskrut award in 12 Years
Since 2012, the State Government has been awarding the ‘Kavi Kalidas Sanskrut Sadhana Award. ‘ There are 8 different categories under which the awards are presented to distinguished Sanskrut scholars, Veda scholars, Sanskrut teachers, Sanskrut professors, and activists who promote Sanskrut language. Each award carries a cash prize of Rs 25,000/-. In the past 12 years, the Government has not increased the prize amount by even a single rupee. In contrast, the Government spends crores of rupees annually on promoting Urdu.
The Government order clearly states that the awards should be presented on the ‘Sanskrut Day’ every year, but since its inception, the award has never been presented on this day. Instead, the award distribution programme is held once in 2-3 years and the awards are given together for those years.
Announce the awards on the ‘Sanskrut Day’ this year
This year, the ‘Sanskrut Day’ falls on 19thAugust 2024. On this occasion, the patrons of Sanskrut language hope that the Government would announce the grant of overdue funds for the ‘Kavi Kalidas Sanskrit Sadhana Award’ and distribute the pending awards for the past three years on this day.
Editorial Perspectives
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