Archives Deptt says funds awaited from Finance Deptt
Several crores worth infrastructure remains unutilized
JAMMU, June 19: Incredible it may sound but it is a fact that shifting of archival record to the state-of-the-art building constructed by Jammu Smart City Limited (JSCL) near Kala Kendra at Bikram Chowk is getting delayed for want of just Rs 8 lakh. This is notwithstanding the fact that at present the record is lying in three different places in disorganized manner.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that on the request of Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums, the Board of Directors of Jammu Smart City Limited approved construction of state-of-the-art building near Kala Kendra for shifting of Archives Repository.
Accordingly, the building was constructed as per the requirement projected by the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums and on February 7, 2024, the Chief Executive Officer of Jammu Smart City Limited wrote a letter to the Director, Archives, Archaeology and Museums with the request to take over the building from JSCL.
In the month of February itself, the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums formally took over the building from Jammu Smart City Limited and even received proper briefing and training about the handling of state-of-the-art equipment installed in the building for better preservation of the archival record, sources said.
The three-storied building with a total covered area of 21,000 square feet is having Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (H-VAC) system of 100 tonnage capacity, package STP of 10 KLD capacity, IT equipment like 107 CCTV cameras, face recognition biometric system, walk through detector with temperature scanning, sensor and hooters for detecting intruders, centralized control room for monitoring and fire fighting system with smoke detector and alarm system, DG Set 200 KVA, transformer sub-station 200 KVA and rain water harvesting system.
However, despite the lapse of over three months the modern building has not been put to use by the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums and the entire infrastructure created by spending crores of rupees is lying unutilized, sources informed.
“This is mainly because the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums, which functions under the administrative control of Culture Department, doesn’t have Rs 8 lakh required for shifting of archival record kept at three different places to the new building”, they said, adding “Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums through the Administrative Department has projected the requirement of Rs 8 lakh to the Finance Department but till date funds have not been sanctioned/released”.
At present the archival record is lying in Army Headquarter building of Mubarak Mandi Complex, Old Treasury Building near Mubarak Mandi Complex and in Kala Kendra Building and at any of these places there is no such facility as has been created by Jammu Smart City Limited in the state-of-the-art building.
“It is really surprising that for want of just few lakh of rupees building constructed by spending crores of rupees has remained unutilized during the past more than three months”, sources remarked, adding “there is no weightage behind the claim of certain officers that road leading to Mubarak Mandi Complex is not in a good condition for plying of vehicles as every day there is a movement of heavy vehicles carrying material for ongoing project of Mubarak Mandi Complex”.
They further said, “it seems that urgency of shifting archival record to state-of-the-art building projected by the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums before the Board of Directors of Jammu Smart City Limited has vanished after taking over of the building”, adding “keeping in view the bad condition of the archival record all the concerned officers should sit together and arrange Rs 8 lakh, which is not a big amount to be managed”.
Nadeem Nadu (ندیم مختار) 