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South corp’s museum named after Dec 16 gang-rape victim in shambles
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation had announced on February 6 that it will name its science museum for children in RK Puram after the December 16 gang-rape victim. It had also said that the renovation work, for which Rs 20 crore had apparently been earmarked, would be done by the end of the financial year.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation had announced on February 6 that it will name its science museum for children in RK Puram after the December 16 gang-rape victim. It had also said that the renovation work, for which Rs 20 crore had apparently been earmarked, would be done by the end of the financial year.
A visit to the museum, however, revealed a tale of empty promises and a structure, which is rapidly becoming a relic of sorts. A Tyrannosaurus statue greets you as one enters the shabby six-room structure, which is located at Sector 6 of RK Puram and shares the building with a south corporation-run primary school.
“The museum was inaugurated on September 27, 1985 by Krishna Chandra Pant, the then Union education minister,” Dhrub Prasad Soni, assistant curator of the Children Resource Centre Museum, said.
Though there was a grand announcement by the South Corporation functionaries a couple of months ago with a promise to finish the renovation and upgrade by March 31, not even a single brick has been moved at the museum complex.
“We have heard about it and read about it in the newspapers but nothing has happened yet. Hope it will start soon,” an employee of the museum, who did not wish to be named, said.
According to him, no massive renovation has happened over these 27 years.
“We have tried a lot for its upgradation but have failed. If R20 crore is spent on this museum, it will become one of the best in the country. If it is done, then it will definitely be a welcome move,” Soni, who has been working with the museum for the past 18 years, said.
The six dingy rooms are divided into several sections - Body and Health, Transportation, History of Man, Ecology, India’s Energy Resources and Earth and Origin of Life.
