The All Meghalaya Dancers Association (AMDA) had decided to hold a hunger strike after the department of Arts and Culture rejected its demand for special assistance to be provided to young talents.
The association in 2019 had sought financial assistance for talented youth of the State so they don’t miss the opportunity to participate in various competitions at the national and international level.
AMDA president, Kitbok Thabah told reporters today that the association has decided to give 15 days to the State government to fulfil the demand.
“We have travelled every nook and corner of the State and there are numerous talented youth who hail from the very weak economic background and cannot go to school. They have the talent singing, dancing, etc. but due to lack of assistance their talent go wasted,” Thabah said.
Informing that AMDA had from time to time conducted events like the Meghalaya Superstar and other talent shows thereby providing a platform to nurture talents of youth, he lamented that owing to lack of support from the government, most of the youth who won at the state level missed the opportunity to participate in the national or international level because of lack of financial assistance.
“We have assisted many youths to participate at the national level and our funds are almost exhausted. Some of our MLAs would give our youth a sum of Rs 2000 at the most to go to participate in big events in Delhi, etc which is not enough and this is where we felt that the government should earmark special assistance for such youth,” he said.
Thabah further said that the department has never clarified why the government rejected their demands.
