Meagre funds hit book preservation: Kakinada

Kakinada: For the last three years, the Centre sanctioned only Rs 10 lakh and 2,000 books have been cleaned with that money and preserved in the Archaeological Museum in Kakinada. Archaeological Department Assistant Director G Venkata Ratnam said that this building is one of the oldest and houses oldest books, coins, clay shells. He said that they have sent proposal for Rs 6 crore to the Central government. But in vain. He said the removal of the old building and the construction of new building will protect the palm leafs and the old coins.

The Archaeological Department, Kakinada in East Godavari is having the most valuable inscriptions, ancient textbooks and coins used in Chandragupta, Maurya, Sinhala, Mughal empire and Dravidian countries history.

The historians and booklovers have expressed serious concern over the neglect of old textbooks and historical inscriptions in the museum.

Adding further, Ratnam said that for preserving the palm leaf books, first we have to clean them with a special kind of chemical and building has to be restructured.

Actually, Eluru, Rajamahendravaram, Peddapuram and Kakinada museums were come under the purview of the district. The Central government has already allocated Rs 10 crore and the Bapu Museum got Rs 8 crore and the Eluru Museum got Rs 3.50 crore. The Kakinada Museum was not funded due to various reasons.

This year proposals for Rs 6 crore were sent to the Centre to give a facelift to the building since hundreds of foreigners, teachers, faculty, professors and students flock to see the archaeological books, the coins and the oldest statues. Venkata Ratnam said that the Kakinada museum was set up ten years ago in Peddapuram with the efforts of Bachupu Foundation.

Stating that he reads and researches on Sanskrit, Brahmi, Nagari, Deva Nagari and ancient Kannada scripts, Ratnam said that he was one of the government's Sahitya Shiromani and Telugu Vidvan all over the state.