The embarrassing saga of last minute change of the list of participants from the State at the Cannes International Film Festival has forced the State government to act and save its image.
It may be mentioned that due to the alleged interference of a senior IAS officer, the original list of participants was tweaked and instead Commander Shangpliang and Nicholas Lemtor Kharkongor were selected to attend the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival which will be held at Cannes in France from May 16 to 27.
The change in the name of participants has led to a hue and cry. Many people associated with the film industry in the State have questioned the way the list of participants was changed at the behest of the senior IAS officer.
Today, Information and Public Relations Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh had a meeting with officials of stakeholder departments of Art and Culture, Information and Public Relations and Tourism and took stock of the situation surrounding the nomination of Shangpliang and Kharkongor to attend the Cannes Film Festival.
The meeting after going through the nominations of Pradip Kurbah and Dominic Sangma decided that Dominic Sangma be selected to attend the Cannes Festival and his name has been recommended to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as there are reports that Kharkongor has withdrawn his participation from the event.
It was also decided in the meeting that for future such opportunities to take part in international or national film festivals or events there would be a selection committee chaired by Chief Secretary that would select the persons who would attend by merit with discussion and participation of all three stakeholder departments as members of the committee and by their mutual consent and decision.
It was also reiterated that while the departments of the State government wrote separately for the film festival nominating film personalities of the State, the choice was eventually made by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India and they are free to do so as a Ministry.
However, the State Information and Public Relations Department is taking up the matter for substitution with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry subject to their guidelines and processes.
