Thursday, October 20, 2011

Culture awaits Central nod to begin Rs. 2.25 crore restoration of heritage buildings

GANGTOK, 18 Oct: The Department of Cultural Affairs & Heritage, Government of Sikkim, is awaiting the ‘go-ahead’ from the Centre to execute works related to the preservation of heritage buildings and monuments in the State damaged in the 18 September Earthquake. This exercise is estimated at a total proposed amount of Rs. 2.25 crore.
It may be informed here that the Cabinet had proposed this sum of Rs. 2.25 crore for the preservation/ restoration of monasteries and temples, cultural resource mapping, digitalization of records, purchase of ethnographic artifacts for the upcoming State Museum, preservation and the restoration of traditional houses and historical buildings etc to be phased and undertaken equally from 2011-12 to 2014-2015, as recorded in the Cabinet memo of 01 July 2011.
The Culture Secretary, DK Kharel, speaking to NOW! today informed that the funds had been sought from the 13th Finance Commission and that all formalities related to the approval has already been sent to the concerned authorities at the Centre.
“We are awaiting their response eagerly so that we can start with the execution of the works on all heritage status buildings and monuments in the state. We have information that the funds have been approved but the green signal from the centre is still awaited. We have also included lake development projects since people worship many lakes in the state, archival records preservation and creation of a digital data base for the same. As soon as we get the go ahead, we will start immediately,” informed the Secretary.

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