‘The Punjab government has set up 10 museums at various places in the state’

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 13: THE two-day conference on ‘Towards a Cultural Management Initiative for Punjab’, jointly organised by the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, and the Anandpur Sahib Foundation, Chandigarh, began today with the Punjab government declaring that digitisation and preservation of manuscripts has already begun in universities in Punjab.

Culture Minister Partap Singh Bajwa said today restoration of murals has been entrusted upon the National Research Laboratory of Conservation of the ASI. Similarly, the Ranvas Mahal of Qila Mubarak Complex has been preserved with the help of the ASI. The Punjab government has set up 10 museums at various places in the state. The archival record is being shifted to the fully-refurbished old office buildings of the Commissioner, DC and Sessions Judge in Patiala.

Paul Michael Taylor, Director of Asian Cultural History Program of Smithsonian Institution, presented a curator’s observation on the Sikh exhibition at the Musuem. The exhibition, ‘Sikhs: Legacy of Punjab’, was inaugurated in July 2004, he added. Dilsher Singh Kalha, Principal Secretary, welcomed the delegates, while Dr Smriti Trikha, Science Officer, Indo-Us Science and Technology Forum, gave a presentation on opportunities available in science and technology. Dr Sohan Singh Chaudhary of the Sikh Heritage Foundation sought to build a permanent partnership between associations in India and the US to accelerate the process of preservation and conservation.

Among the other scholars who participated included Gurmeet S Rai, conservation architect, Gurinder Singh Mann and Gibb Schreffler of the University of California.