Space crunch hits display at Madhusudan museum

Cuttack: When a portion of Madhusmruti, once the home of Madhusudan Das - the architect of modern Odisha, was converted into museum in 2007, tall claims were made to expand it into a full-fledged memorial museum. After nine years, one can see that the museum has not expanded even an inch. It is still being run from a single room.
Sources said over 280 items related to Madhu Babu were found in the building, which houses the Shailabala Women's College.Only 50% of those items are on display. Precious documents and memorabilia are stacked up in files and cupboards at Madhusudan Sanghralaya because of scarcity of space.
"There are over 500 letter of historical importance, but there is no space to display them. These are neither being digitized not chemically preserved," said an employee of the museum. Only 3,700 people visit the museum every year.
"The low footfall can be attributed to poor display of interesting artefacts, most of which are more than 100 years old," the employee said.
Denizens blamed the state government for the present condition of the museum. "Madhu Babu donated everything he had for the development of the state. But the government is not bothered about preserving the memorabilia by expanding the museum," said state president of Utkal Sammillani Guru Prasad Mohanty.
The culture department claimed that a proposal seeking more rooms for the museum is pending with the government. "We will definitely display other items after getting the additional space," said deputy director culture department Sanghamitra Satpathy.