Chandikhole: The security arrangements at Odisha’s first bulletproof museum located at Lalitgiri in Jajpur district where Lord Buddha’s bone fragments have been kept are not up to the mark, a report said.
Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri in Jajpur district are known all over the world as ‘Diamond Triangle’. There is a bulletproof museum in Lalitgiri, built by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) at a cost of Rs 10,00,000,00. There are three caskets placed there with the smallest one having the bone fragments of Lord Buddha.
The museum was inaugurated through video conferencing by Prime Minister Narendra Modi December 24, 2018. For several months after the inauguration, the museum was under tight security. Later, the same security arrangements at the museum were found missing.
The local residents have raised concerns about it.
According to the protocol, there should be six gunmen and six tourist guides at the museum providing three-layer security round the clock. But as of now, only one gunman and five guides are managing the show here. On the other hand, in place of ten employees appointed for Bouddha Vihar, only seven are there.
According to local residents, the staff shortage at Bouddha Vihar has a detrimental effect on the monastery. They urged immediate intervention of the administration.
Notably, the relics were found preserved in a puzzle box like container comprising three boxes with one inside the other – a golden container within a silver container and the silver container inside a wooden container. They were recovered during an excavation drive at Lalitgiri in 1985-86 by ASI. The casket was discovered from among the ruins of a pagoda.
Assuming it unsafe to keep the relics there at the Lalitgiri, the ASI had decided to preserve it at the State Museum in Bhubaneswar. After several requests and sit-ins, the central government finally constructed a bulletproof museum and brought the casket back here.
Lalitgiri, stretched over 90 acres, has a lot of artefacts including images of Lord Buddha in different meditative postures and a large number of tourists from the different parts of the country and abroad are visiting the site.
When asked, ASI, deputy superintendent, Manas Chandra Sahu said the number of tourists has drastically come down during this pandemic and that has led to downsizing of security and other staff. He went on to assure that more security guards will be appointed when the tourists return in larger numbers.
PNN