Roerich Trust official visa valid: Himachal police does U turn

Shimla : Police today admitted that a foreign national associated for over a decade with Russian painter and philosopher Nicholas Roerich’s multi-crore estate near Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu has a valid visa, and is allowed to be there in the town.

After dilly-dallying for over a week, the Kullu’s superintendent of police, who is also the foreigners’ registration officer (FRO), finally registered the name of Alena Adamkova, curator-cum-executive director of the International Roerich Memorial Trust, as there was no violation by her in visa norms.

“Adamkova was summoned to the FRO office today over some query and she has produced all the travel documents. There was no discrepancy in travel documents,” Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar said .

Earlier, the police officials were saying her visa had a rider that she could not visit Kullu.

But Kumar today said they had no communication from the external affairs ministry on her travel restrictions.

Adamkova arrived in Kullu Feb 21 after renewing her employment visa. Last week she visited the FRO office but officials there refused to register her name, citing visa norm violations.

The work visa of Adamkova was extended despite objections from the trust’s Indian members, who said she was allegedly involved in financial irregularities at the trust.

“The (Indian) trustees, who are her employers, were not in favour of granting work visa again to her. Chief Secretary Rajwant Sandhu, who is also a member of the trust, wrote to the foreign secretary not to renew Admakova’s work visa that expired in January,” a trustee said.

“But before the secretary took note of it, Adamkova got it for a year,” the trustee said.

The trust was founded by Roerich’s daughter-in-law, the late film actress Devika Rani. Registered in April 1993, the 13-member trust also has Russian Ambassador to India Alexander M. Kadakin as a trustee, while Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal is the ex-officio president.

The Roerich estate is located in Naggar, 25 km from Kullu town, where Roerich came in 1927 from St. Petersburg and made the tiny village his home for more than 20 years.

Roerich, who died in Naggar Dec 13, 1947, created more than 7,000 paintings in his lifetime.

IANS

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