PM LD SCIENCE TWO

Turning to four premier cultural institutions in Kolkata
-- The Asiatic Society, Indian Museum, Victoria Memorial and
National Library, the prime minister said the ministry of
Culture had made a special allocation of about Rs 90 crore in
the current financial year for their modernisation.
Describing each of these institutions as a cultural icon
of the country, he said, "Unfortunately these institutions
have not been able to fully utilise this grant in the first
year."
He, however, hoped that these four institutions would
work harder to use the allocated funds to introduce state of
the art systems of preservation, display and storage of their
priceless antiquities, painting and manuscripts.
During the current fiscal, the Centre had given
substantial additional funds to the Khuda Baksh Library in
Patna, in eastern Indian state of Bihar, the Rampur Raza
library in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the
Delhi public library, he said.
The Prime Minister said his government believed in the
plurality of Indian culture, freedom of cultural expression
and in the importance of culture in social progress.
"For its long term salvation, culture must become a
people's movement and we have to give culture a contemporary
feel and relevance," he said. MORE PTI