CISF to take charge of Indian Museum

Kolkata: The Indian Museum is all set to induct Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel on Monday.

"The induction ceremony of the Central Industrial Security Force at the Indian Museum will be held on December 23, 2019. There will be as many as 57 CISF jawans who will be taking charge of the security," said Arijit Dutta Choudhury, director of Indian Museum.

Museum authorities have constructed barracks for lodging of CISF personnel in the vacant space beside the Ashutosh Centenary Hall located on the premises of the Indian Museum. According to sources, Central Industrial Security Force was earlier scheduled to take charge of Indian Museum from September this year. However, CISF personnel will entirely replace 49 personnel of a private agency and 3 Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASI) and 9 constables of Kolkata Police, who are presently in charge of the museum's security. At present, Victoria Memorial Hall is the only museum in the city to be under the security cover of CISF in Kolkata. However, the CISF guards Taj Mahal, Red Fort, National Museum in Delhi and Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad. "The CISF induction ceremony will start at 11 am at Central Courtyard of the Indian Museum on Monday," said an official of the museum.

The Indian Museum has 1.08 lakhs artefacts in its collection and only 5 percent of them are in display.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankar will grace the occasion of CISF security deployment.

It might be mentioned that the concern over security at Victoria Memorial and Indian Museum was raised way back in 2004 by environmentalist Subhas Datta, after a Buddha sandstone bust was stolen from the Indian museum.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had taken up investigation of the case but was unable to make any breakthrough. The matter had gone to the Supreme Court, which had prodded the Centre for deployment of CISF security at both Victoria Memorial and Indian Museum.