Historical articles kept inside a proposed
museum here are gathering dust as the museum is still not
open to the common people.
Secretary of North East Development Academy, Mr Ranajit Deb
said they would appeal to the state PWD minister, Mr Kshiti
Goswami, tomorrow to issue the required approval for the museum
during his visit to Cooch Behar. Mr Deb opined that the PWD
minister should come forward so that common people could see
the historic articles of the days of Maharajas of Cooch Behar.
Earlier, a number of eminent citizens had submitted memorandums
to the former PWD minister, Mr Amar Chaudhury, on several
occasions requesting to approve the PWD (Roads) museum for
public view at Cooch Behar, but to no avail.
Executive engineer of PWD (Roads), Highway division, Cooch
Behar, Mr Deepak Kumar Singh, said he would request the PWD
minister to visit the room where the historic items have been
kept. He believes the minister may take measures for the museum’s
approval after seeing the rich collection of rare articles.
It may be recalled that Mr Arup Jyoti Majumder and his colleagues
in PWD (Roads), highway division, took an initiative to build
the novel museum in Cooch Behar. They collected many rare
articles of historic importance of the erstwhile Raj-days
of Cooch Behar. A few years ago, responding to a letter, the
Chief Engineer (Roads) reportedly requested the Executive
Engineer of Cooch Behar highway division to keep the historical
documents in a selected room of the divisional building with
proper care till declaration of a Sangrahashala by the government.
On behalf of Concern for Cooch Behar, Md Saukat Ali and some
others proposed that the museum should be roomed at the building
facing Anandamoyee Dharmashala, because the men, who came
to Cooch Behar to build Cooch Behar Palace, stayed there.
The building was originally constructed in 1850. The Victoria
College (now Acharya Brajendra Nath Seal College) started
functioning in this building. Later, when the college building
was constructed in its present site, the office of the Chief
Engineer of Cooch Behar State was shifted in that building.
Presently, the collections for the proposed museum are lying
in a room of the PWD (Roads) office near the historic Madan
Mohan temple complex. It was learnt that there are two such
museums of the PWD in the state ~ one in Kolkata and the other
in Darjeeling.
The Public Works unit was set up in Cooch Behar in 1864 during
the regime of Maharajas of Cooch Behar for construction of
buildings, bridges, and roads. Before that the PW jobs were
done under Baxikhana. The total length of roads was nine miles
only before 1864. But, during the next 20-years 109-mile roads
were constructed under royal PW unit. This department also
constructed the railroad from Mogulhat (now in Bangladesh)
to Buxa.
Since the merger of Cooch Behar with India, the state government
did little to preserve and maintain the landmarks, monuments
and documents relating to the Heritage status of this town,
a senior citizen said.
PWD (Roads) personnel did a tremendous job by finding out
many age-old tools and instruments, maps, ledgers, documents,
books on architecture, mileposts, drafts and designs of various
buildings and bridges. They also collected a few copies of
gazettes printed from Cooch Behar State Press in those Raj-days.
When Cooch Behar was a princely state, lampposts and water
stand-posts were brought from England. A few of these articles
too found place in the proposed museum.
Concrete water-tubs placed on the side of roads for cattle
in those good-old days, are also collected for the museum.
Not only these, specimen of royal emblems, maps, furniture
made with Burma-teak, bricks made by royal PW unit and documents
of Cooch Behar Airport during second world war are also collected
for the proposed museum. An employee opined that if these
historic objects were displayed properly in a gallery it would
enhance the tourist attraction of this heritage town.
Once, Major Prince Gautam Narayan of the Cooch Behar royal
family was the deputy chief engineer of the Royal Public Works
unit. And so, demands raised here from some quarters to name
the proposed museum after Prince Gautam Narayan to pay respect
to the royal family for bringing Cooch Behar to the modern
age.
The officials, staff and others associated with PWD (Roads)
in Cooch Behar are now eagerly waiting for the approval from
the government for official declaration of the proposed museum,
for which they worked hard during the last few years. They
believe that the PWD minister Mr Kshiti Goswami would give
the much-needed approval.
Courtesy: The Statesman |
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