Shas­tri Boodan

GML cor­re­spon­dent

The with­draw­al of First Cit­i­zens Bank (FCB) from this year’s Di­vali Na­gar has added to the spon­sor­ship chal­lenges fac­ing the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), just days be­fore the an­nu­al cel­e­bra­tions be­gin.

NCIC pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo con­firmed the lat­est with­draw­al yes­ter­day, as prepa­ra­tions con­tin­ued at the Di­vali Na­gar site on Narsa­loo Ra­maya Road, Ch­agua­nas, ahead of the Oc­to­ber 30 open­ing.

Man­ga­roo said FCB pulled out on Tues­day, hav­ing sup­port­ed the Di­vali Na­gar for 18 years in a row.

“They know best why; I am sure they would have good rea­sons for with­draw­ing their sup­port,” he said.

Man­ga­roo said he is al­so await­ing a let­ter from the Na­tion­al Flour Mills (NFM) on whether they will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in this year’s event.

The lat­est de­vel­op­ment fol­lows the with­draw­al ear­li­er this week of bmo­bile as a key spon­sor, af­ter the NCIC hav­ing ap­pealed to the Gov­ern­ment for fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to stage this year’s event.

The loss of cor­po­rate sup­port has raised con­cerns about fund­ing for the an­nu­al cel­e­bra­tion, al­though Man­ga­roo says it will pro­ceed as planned.

“The Na­gar is go­ing to con­tin­ue; we have every sin­gle thing in place, the start date, the fin­ish date.”

He said this year marked the 40th an­niver­sary of Di­vali Na­gar, re­gard­ed as the largest Di­vali fes­ti­val out­side In­dia.

De­spite the spon­sor­ship set­backs, Man­ga­roo said the NCIC would not cut cor­ners or in­tro­duce an en­trance fee.

He ex­plained that the or­gan­i­sa­tion re­lies on in­come from rent­ing fa­cil­i­ties to an In­di­an Ex­po and a car wash to help off­set util­i­ty bills, main­te­nance and se­cu­ri­ty costs at the site, which op­er­ates through­out the year.

He said the area runs 365 days a year and the an­nu­al elec­tric­i­ty bill cross­es $250,000.

“We have ground staff, of­fice staff and 24-hour se­cu­ri­ty.”

Man­ga­roo said the cost of stag­ing Di­vali Na­gar was sub­stan­tial, with po­lice ser­vices cost­ing close to $250,000 and pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty ex­ceed­ing $300,000.

“We have to pay for jan­i­to­r­i­al ser­vices, we pay artistes, we have to pay for sound sys­tems, light­ing, young artistes are giv­en a stipend,” he said.

He said the NCIC had been en­gag­ing mem­bers of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, some of whom had pledged sup­port fol­low­ing news of the State’s with­draw­al of spon­sor­ship.

Man­ga­roo said about five to sev­en cor­po­rate spaces re­mained avail­able, but he was con­fi­dent the event would con­tin­ue to grow de­spite the fi­nan­cial chal­lenges.

“I can as­sure the pub­lic that the Di­vali Na­gar will con­tin­ue; it is get­ting big­ger,” he said.

“We will sur­vive!”