BHUBANESWAR: With vacancies for various posts at the State Museum remaining unfilled, the officials are grappling with additional charges and work load. The 54-year-old museum established in 1957 is experiencing a severe dearth of specialised staff as well as workers. The Museum houses some of the most stunning archaeological sculptures, armours and ancient manuscripts among other historical objects. The Museum, which has nine galleries including Numismatics, Archaeology, Geology, Patta Painting, Palm Leaf, Natural History, is facing a paucity of curators, assistant curators, attendants, technical assistants and even Class IV staff. In the absence of guides, visitors to the museum are finding it difficult to get more information about the displays. Sources said as many as 50 per cent of the posts are vacant in the Museum. Currently, while there are around 45 persons permanently on the rolls, 12 to 15 persons have been hired on contract basis. “The museum has only 55 employees against a requirement of double that number, whether experts or Class IV employees. Even the size of security contingent that guards the invaluable collection is less than one-third of the actual need,” said a senior official, on condition of anonymity. Even though the Museum authorities have been writing to officials concerned, it has yielded no response so far. “We had written to the government two months back,” said Superintendent in-charge Manjushri Samantray, adding there is an urgent need for recruitments to ease the workload of the existing staff. Meanwhile, the State Museum on Thursday celebrated its 54th Foundation Day. On the occasion, Director of the National Museum of Mankind (NMM), Bhopal, Kamal K Mishra said the Odisha State Museum should be developed on the lines of the NMM which acts as a facilitator for forging inter-relation between community and the museums. “Steps should be taken to make the museum more interactive as bringing in modern day crowd to museum has become a challenge these days,” he said. An exhibition on tribal paintings was inaugurated on the occasion by Culture Director S K Das. Among others, epigraphist Snigdha Tripathy was present. School students who had participated in a painting competition held as a part of the foundation day celebrations were also felicitated.
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