Bhubaneswar, Nov. 30: A committee set up to probe into allegations of financial irregularities at Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya has failed to make any headway since its formation a month ago.

The three-member committee was formed after students staged a demonstration in August demanding better and permanent staff and a probe into the financial irregularities at the state-run institute.

The Utkal University of Culture comptroller of finance, P. Hembromwas the chairman of the committee while M. Mallick and Debraj Adhikari, officials in the culture department, are the other members of the committee. While the committee was set up in October and a report was to be submitted within a month, so far no such report has been prepared.

"We have not received any report yet. The inquiry was started based on students' demand," said Manoranjan Panigrahy, secretary of the state culture department.

"The funds sanctioned by the culture department have not been used by the institute properly. The money that could have been used to get better faculty members and develop infrastructure lies unused," said Niladri Kumar, one of the agitating students of the institute.

However, the committee received a blow as Hembrom was transferred to Nuapada soon after it was formed.

"We now have a new member in the committee that has started the inquiry last week. They will get the report ready in a month," said Suman Das, principal in-charge and the registrar of the Utkal University of Culture who has taken over the institute after the agitation by the students.

"The Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) results are also out, and we will soon hire permanent lecturers," he said.

Students, however, said that the candidates who had appeared for the posts of lecturers in various subjects such as sitar, violin and so on have filed a case in the Orissa High Court against the procedure of selection since they were not interviewed by experts in their subjects.

The varsity for performing arts was set up in 1964 by the state government and has produced famed artistes such as Odissi exponents Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, Guru Durga Charan Ranbir, well-known music composer Ramhari Das.

The college is still the only institution by the state government that imparts academic courses in performing arts in various vocal and instrumental music and dance forms such as Odissi dance, Chhow dance, Odissi vocal, Hindustani vocal, Carnatic vocal, flute, carnatic violin, Hindustani violin, sitar, tabla and Odissi pakhwaj and drama.

However, the faculty have not been hired through the OPSC since over a decade and only guest lecturers take classes. Most of them are not professionally trained. This had led the students to take to agitation in August when they had demanded immediate recruitment for the posts of faculty that had been lying vacant for long.