Centre allocates 10 cr for Patna's Rajendra Prasad museum

Patna, Jul 12 (UNI) On the eve of the 125th birth anniversary of the country's first President Dr Rajendra Prasad, the Centre has allocated Rs 10 crore as a 'special fund' for the expansion and modernisation of the 'Rajendra Prasad Smriti Sangrahalaya' here.

Informing this, official sources told UNI here today that the special fund would primarily be utilised for collecting and displaying more personal memorabilia and other items of Dr Rajendra Prasad and introducing a 'light and sound' event on his life and work in the museum complex.

The two-storeyed museum would also be given a facelift and made centrally air-conditioned with several other facilities, the sources said.

Meanwhile, the state government had chalked out a year long programme to celebrate Dr Prasad's 125th birth anniversary, they added.

The government had requested the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Posts and Telegraph Department to issue a special coin and postage stamp on Bihar's famous son to mark the occasion.

The sources said a portion of the Central fund would be set aside as a special corpus and its annual earnings, to the tune of Rs 5 million, would be utilised for future upkeep and other related work of the museum.

The museum had recently been declared a heritage building by the Union government.

Moreover, as part of the year long celebrations, a number of seminars, workshops and lectures would be organised in different parts of the state, including places with which Dr Prasad was personally associated.

Among these are the Chapra District School, Eden School at Gopalganj and the T K Ghosh Academy in Patna, where Mr Prasad studied during his early days, the sources informed.

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