| Rich Dogra heritage left to rot, thanks to uncaring officials | | Making mockery of World Heritage Day | | Akshay Azad | 4/19/2018 12:35:18 AM |
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Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 18: The Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museum on Wednesday celebrated World Heritage Day-2018 under theme "Heritage for Generations", but the approach of department is so negligent that there is bleak chance of the rich Dogra heritage surviving for few more years.
According to sources, over 500-600 prestigious paintings, including world famous Basohli paintings, were hit by moisture. The issue came to fore last month, but so far there has been no effort to preserve the same.
"The officials at the helm had taken the matter very lightly and had not conducted any enquiry about the matter or fixed responsibility over the negligence", sources said, adding that there were no funds to preserve the world famous paintings, cost of which runs into several thousand crores.
"A team of experts had visited the Dogra Art Museum last week and they had examined the paintings. They were not engaged by the department but had come only to take stock of the matter, so that a proposal and estimate would be forwarded to the government", sources said.
Sources further informed that for preservation of the paintings, there was urgent requirement of a laboratory and equipment. "The government had sanctioned Rs. 10 lakh for setting up a laboratory. The money was given to Tourism Development Authority, which had invited tenders in the second week of March but with the closing of financial year, the funds got lapsed", sources said, adding that now the department was waiting for the estimate report of experts, mentioning the demands of funds and other infrastructure.
"Once the funds would be released by the government and a laboratory would be set up there, only then the preservation work on ruining Basohli paintings would start", sources said, adding that government was no negligent towards the Dogra heritage.
If the government as well as the attitude of officials at the helm of affairs would be so pathetic, then there is every possibility that even this generation will not be able to get a glimpse of Dogra heritage, including paintings.
"The government has been shielding the culprits responsible for damage caused to Basohli paintings, which is obvious from the delay in ordering an enquiry into the matter", sources said. |
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