KK's demise: Trinamool's Saugata Roy questions college fest fund source

Kolkata, June 19 The controversy surrounding the demise of playback singer, Krishnakumar Kunnath, popularly known as KK, refuses to die. A senior Lok Sabha member of the Trinamool Congress has now raised questions about the source of college fest funds required for hiring such an expensive artist.

KK died soon after he made his last stage performance for Kolkata-based Gurudas College at Nazrul Manch in South Kolkata on May 31. Soon after the opposition parties raised questions about the source of funds for organising such expensive college fests which are essentially the affairs of college students' unions.

Now, a similar question has been raised by senior Trinamool Congress leader and three-time party MP, Saugata Roy. Speaking at a party programme late Saturday evening, Roy, a professor of physics in pre-retirement life, said that during his student days also there was a trend of organising cultural programmes on the occasion of college fests or freshers' welcome.

"KK came to Kolkata for a stage performance and died here. What was the necessity of hiring such an expensive artist from Mumbai? At times I wonder where so much money, amounting to around Rs 50 lakh comes to meet the expenses of such functions. Who provides this money? Are the students surrendering to the local goons and promoters for such money? I am not against amusements. But my question is that if the students surrender in the beginning, how will they fight in the long run," Roy said.

In the recent past Roy's loaded statements often have posed embarrassment for the ruling party. Even after the recent rape and murder of a minor girl at Hanskhali in Nadia district, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave a love angle to the incident, Roy indirectly countered that. "In a state like West Bengal, with a woman chief minister, even a single incidence of rape is a matter of shame," Roy had said.

Roy's questioning of the sources of college fest funds, have been welcomed by all opposition parties in the state like the BJP, CPI-M and the Congress. However, the opposition leaders said that Roy should be more vocal against the ill-practices of his party leaders instead of just making some occasional statements.