Kathmandu, January 24:

It is unlikely that three separate academies — for fine arts, literature, and music and dance — will be formed ahead of the CA elections. This is following the Election Commission’s code of conduct, which prohibits the government from nominating anyone to high posts before the CA polls.

An act, which allows the government to form these academies, was passed in parliament last month. This was seen as the successful outcome of the four-year-old movement launched by artists and writers demanding the formation of separate academies.

The government had set up three committees to nominate candidates for senior positions of the academies while the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had finalised the nominees.

“We were about to make the names public but the EC’s code of conduct has made it difficult for us to do so. We can only hope that some provision will be made for the nominations,” said Jala Krishna Shrestha, a joint-secretary at the ministry.

Meanwhile, the government has made a draft list of probable top-level positions for all three academies.

The Academy for Fine Art was set to have either Uttam Nepali or Shashi Bikram Shah or Manuj Babu Mishra as its chancellor. The Literary Academy would elect one among Maniklal Shrestha, Modnath Prashrit and Kamal Mani Dixit as its chancellor. Similarly, Satya Mohan Joshi, Abhi Subedi or Dipak Jangam were nominated for the post of chancellor for the Academy of Music and Dances.