The News Minute| January 21, 2015| 3.20 pm ISTThe Kerala school youth festival or school Kalolsavam is truly a festival with thousands of students from all over the state showcasing their talents. But if you thought Kalolsavams are venues of laughter and friendship, that would be an incorrect assumption to make. Every year, Kalolsavams become the arena of catfights, tears and stiff competition. The sharp rivalry in fact has become a money spinner for the government.This year too, the state exchequer has received lakhs of rupees as ‘appeal’ fees from the participants.Appeal system in Kerala State and district youth festivals enables the participants to approach a higher authority if they think that there were flaws in the decision of the judging panel.In district level youth festivals, participants approach courts or organizations like child welfare to file an appeal, allowing them to participate in state level.In the state Kalolsavam, usually an appeal committee is arranged at the festival venue itself, participants can approach the committee to file appeals for a better position or grade. These appeals are called ‘higher appeal’.The organizing committee of this year’s Kalolsavam has confirmed that they have received 1144 district level appeals, forwarded by different courts and organizations. The amount to be remitted for this district level appeal is Rs 5000 per item.Apart from this, when the 55th Kerala Kalolsavam 2015 reached its final day, the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) department received record number of higher appeals- 420 in total. The amount to be remitted for state level is Rs. 2000 per item.Apparently the revenue from appeals at state and district level comes to around Rs 65 lakhs. But the department claims, not much revenue will actually come to the government. Why?With many ‘higher appeals’, the number of prizes are also going up. Many events now have two or three first prize winners. More prizes, more money being spent!Appeals continue to kill Kalolsavam’s spiritAccording to DPI, the huge number of appeals has considerably affected the time schedule and the organizers could not wind-up many events on time. This year too, competitions have been delayed for hours, inconveniencing everyone.“Hours are wasted because of appeals; we should have strong system to control district level appeals. Higher appeals can be justified to an extent,” says Babu, Public Relations officer, DPI.Tweet