GUWAHATI, Sept 7 � The Assam State Film (Finance and Development) Corporation Ltd has received an amount of Rs 100 lakh as a corpus fund for the welfare of the artistes in the State.
The first meeting of the advisory board of 'Artiste Welfare Fund' was held on Saturday under the chairmanship of Bobbeeta Sharma, chairperson of the ASFFDC.
Sharma, in the meeting, explained that the funds would be purely used for artistes who were in need and financially distressed. �The person might need help due to some serious illness or in case of major accidents. The main objective of the fund is to help the artistes who are in financial distress for treatment in case of accident or for serious illness,� said Sharma in a statement.
The meeting discussed ways and means to formulate a simple mechanism to make it easy for the financially weak artistes to avail some financial assistance and benefit from the welfare fund that is likely to bring a sigh of relief to the artiste fraternity of Assam.
The meeting was attended by Shantanu Thakur, Secretary, Culture, Nazreen Ahmed, managing director ASFFDC, and artistes Dr Anjanjyoti Choudhury and Nipon Goswami.
In order to be able to avail the benefits under the fund, an artiste would mean a person who with his creativity and sensibility has made substantial contribution or made a mark in the field of art and culture of the State. This would include cine artistes, performing artistes, artistes working in the audio-visual medium, technicians, craftsmen, etc.
The ASFFDC has already begun offering help to artistes in need under the welfare fund. The first recipient of grant from this fund is the late Bikram Hazarika who was granted an amount of Rs 20,000 in May 2011, while he was seriously ill.
