E-Paper
Museum work at Deccan College stalled due to funds crunch
The building’s civil work is completed; however, the interior work is pending due to non-agreement between the tender holder and the Deccan College Trust, said officials
The museum at Deccan College of Archaeology, which would promote Maharashtra culture, has come to a standstill. The building’s civil work is completed; however, the interior work is pending due to non-agreement between the tender holder and the Deccan College Trust, said officials.
Prasad Joshi, head of Sanskrit department at Deccan College of Archaeology, said, “The museum is conceptualised by the former dean Vasant Shinde and is based on findings at various excavations including Inamgaon, Krishna- Godavari River basin, etc.”
For this project, the central government provided help to set up a museum building. The interior work and other setup need to be done. For this, the college needed funds. However, neither the central nor the state government was ready to allocate the funds. The college tried to get funds through CSR, however, nothing worked. After considering all the options, the trust decided to issue a tender. In 2021, the tender was issued by the trust.
Nitin Karmalkar, former chairman of Deccan College Trust, said, “The vice-chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) is a chairperson of Deccan College Trust. During my tenure as the trust’s chairperson, the tender process was executed. However, the tender holder was not able to provide us with the details about the execution of the museum work process which includes how funds will be raised. Therefore, three out of four of the members of the trust declined to sign the agreement.”
Five years back, the central government provided building funds but to set up a museum, interior and other things we require funds. However, despite being a premium archaeological educational institution, the college is facing a serious financial crunch. “For a long, no funds were received by the institutes. It has become a major problem for implementing such an important project. Therefore, the trust needed to outsource people for the museum work,” said Karmalkar.
“The subject is now pending with the SPPU’s vice-chancellor’s office. We are hoping that the issue will be resolved soon and that the work will progress further,” said Joshi.
