The District Cultural Council (DCC), constituted for three years by former Collector Rupa Roshan Sahu by nominating eminent persons from various sectors, is lying defunct for more than two years.
Her successor Bhupindeer Singh Punia, now transferred, had never thought of calling the DCC meeting or reconstituting it, during his short tenure.
Rather, he had discontinued the Dhenkanal Mahotsav, which was observed for 14 years. Incumbent Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan functioning as the chairman of the DCC, meanwhile, though organised the Mahima book fair, regretfully ignored the council members.
It has been a common practice to find that district Collectors, functioning as the chairman of DCC consider them as the sole authority of the council and do not need to place the annual budgets and expenditures before the council meetings.
It is seen that due to inactiveness and lack of physical verifications, many organisations running in the district are only running in pen and papers.
They manage to fetch audit report from chartered accountants, by preparing fake documents to achieve cultural grants from the State and the Centre in lakhs.