Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Development of Northeast Region G. Kishan Reddy on Monday accused the Congress government and Chief Minister A. Reventh Reddy of not responding to his Ministry’s plea to allocate sufficient land for establishing the country’s first national epigraphic museum here.
“This is a prestigious institute being established to preserve and restore our ancient arts and heritage for future generations using digital technology. I had convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allot the project to Hyderabad, but unfortunately, despite repeated letters to the CM, nothing happened on land allocation,” he said.
The Minister was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone for the museum inside the Salar Jung Museum premises. In any other State, the respective government would have rolled out a red carpet for the project. “The government allocates land for setting up political parties offices and others but, sadly, similar enthusiasm is missing for this project though I had approached the government in my capacity as the Central Minister,” he said.
Mr. Kishan Reddy said the proposed museum deserved a bigger space but because the government was not forthcoming with land allotment, it was decided to make use of the available space of the Salar Jung Museum, which comes under his Ministry to construct the new one.
Earlier, the Minister had highlighted the need for preserving and restoring ancient artefacts for future generations to know about the customs, administrative systems, welfare activities, social life, arts and heritage of the country. The Minister assured that the project work and later digitisation of the inscriptions and others will be completed as per schedule.
