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Barisal museum project limps because of fund crisis

17 May 2009, 18:00 PM

NATIONAL

Rafiqul Islam, Barisal

The project work for Barisal Divisional Museum, to be set up at repaired and reformed Barisal Collectorate Building, has remained suspended for two years for lack of fund.Photo: STAR

Works for a museum project remain suspended for two years while the country observes World Museum day today. The deadline for completion of Barisal Divisional Museum expired in June 2007 but the ministry concerned is yet to approve regular fund for running the project and an organogram of 38 staff. Two hundred-year-old Barisal Collectorate Building was declared abandoned when the new building for the deputy commissioner's office complex was built in 1980s. Following demand from local people, the government on April 1, 2004 declared Barisal Collectorate Building as a national heritage and the Ministry of Cultural Affairs asked the Barisal district administration and Public Works Department to hand over the building to the Department of Archaeology. Authorities approved a Tk 2.43 crore project for establishing a divisional museum at the site of the historic building. Renovation work of the museum building was scheduled to begin in July 2005 and end in June 2007. But the work started about six months later and after expiry of the project deadline in June 2007, unused fund amounting to about Tk 43 lakh was sent back to the cultural affairs ministry, causing a halt to the project work. Meanwhile, 376 establishments in Barisal region, declared as antiques and national heritages, now faces uncertainty due to lack of preservation facilities, said sources at the Department of Archaeology. Mintu Bose, secretary of Nagarik Parishad, and Syed Dulal, president of Sangskritik Sangathan Samannoy Parishad, have demanded immediate steps for early completion of the museum project. Barisal Divisional Museum was scheduled to open in June 2008, Project Officer Shihab Uddin said, adding that valuable antiques, including canons of Sultani period, fingerprint of Queen Noorjahan, sword of Sirajuddowla, would be displayed here. Different types of statues and coins, survey maps and manuscripts, mementos of Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, Aswini Kumar Dutta, poet Jibanananda Das and poet Mukunda Das have also been listed for display here, he added.