Proposal to grant financial autonomy to J-K art academy

State Cabinet today accorded sanction to the proposal of granting financial autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.

The decision taken in a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will allow the academy to generate and retain funding from sources other than the government and utilise them independently, an official spokesman said.

It will also leave the management of the financial issues in the hands of the academy through its Finance Committee and the government will restrict itself to laying broad guidelines and policy issues.

The academy will receive an Annual Block Grant which will fund salary, pension, pensionary benefits of the sanctioned staff etc. There will be provision for an increase of upto 10 per cent every year.
 

The academy shall be free to spend the allocated money based on its own internal allocation mechanism and according to what it intends to achieve with the prior approval of its Finance Committee.

At present the government allocates money to the academy in the form of earmarked grant, specifying purpose for which it is to be spent. The Academy has no freedom to cross budget lines as a result of which allocation model is rigid and inflexible leaving little autonomy.