The District Museum in Dhubri, even after 30 years of its existence, is still crying for a land of its own and building.
The District Museum was establishment on July 6, 1988 and since then, it has changed a number of locations and finally in 2003, the district administration allotted a single room located on the first floor of the District Library Building to the District Museum authority for its smooth functioning.
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It is to be mentioned, in March 2010, the district administration had allotted a small portion of land measuring 1 katha and 10 lechas to the District Museum authority near the District Library in March, 2010 in the premises of the Dhubri Ladies Club.
But the Dhubri Ladies Club (Possessor of the land) had filed a writ petition [WP (C) No 1205/2011] before the Gauhati High Court against the decision of the district administration and the dream of the District Museum to have its own land and building remained a dream. The matter of dispute over the land is still lying pending in the High Court.
The High Court disposed of the writ petition on August 21, 2018 with an observation that the land allotted to the District Museum be confined with respect to the vacant portion of the total land measuring 4 kathas and 10 lechas, covered by Dag No 1377 without interfering the peaceful possession of the members of the Ladies Club, Dhubri.
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While expressing his satisfaction over the judgement of the High Court, Mrinmoy Das, District Museum Officer, Dhubri told Northeast Now that very soon the construction work will be started after observing the due process followed by the district administration.
Mrinmoy Das, who has recently taken over the charge of the District Museum said that at present more than 1000 valuable objects having archaeological importance are lying in the museum and out of them only few objects have been on display for the general visitors while many more objects have been forced to keep in the store room due to scarcity of space in the premises.
Many objects which have urgently need renovation in order to preserve it for long periods and hence, the museum has urgently requires its own and separate building, added Das.
Adding more, the District Museum officer said: “This museum stands as a prime cultural institution of Dhubri and a centre of non formal learning. The museum showcases the rich heritage of the place through its diverse range of collection which can be classified into the Seven important categories namely Ethnographic, Numismatics, Textiles and Jeweler, Decorative Everyday Art,Ancient and living Traditional Terracotta Art, Wooden toys, Natural History Specimens, Arms and Armor and Archaeological Remains respectively as per norms of the museum each categories have urgently needed a separate room for each.”
The harrowing fact is that even there is no separate provisions of any room either for the officers and office staff too, all the staff members including the District Museum Officer have been compelled to sit and perform their daily office work by sitting inside a corner of the museum.