INTACH Inks Pact With Odisha Govt To Preserve Ancient Valuable Records

The INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) Odisha Chapter on Monday signed an agreement with the State government for taking up works to preserve valuable age-old records under the Board of Revenue.

The pact was signed in the presence of Land and Settlement Commissioner, Madhusudan Padhi, INTACH Member Sanjeev Hota and Board of Revenue member, GV Benugopal Sharma.

As per reports, the Board of Revenue has handed over 4000 important records to the INTACH for preservation in the first phase on Tuesday.

It is pertinent to mention here that valuable records and archives kept under the Board of Revenue since 1803 have been sent to the State Archive to be used in several places including administrative and research works. The records are assessed every 30 years. While the important ones are sent to the State archives, the not-so-important ones are destroyed.

However, the need to preserve such old records for even longer duration needs a scientific approach. This is where INTACH with expertise in preserving documents, comes in to help. Once safely conserved, such records can work wonders for future administrators and researchers in the time of needs.

Speaking to reporters, the Special Secretary to the Board of Revenue, Nihar Ranjan Das said, “We have managed to preserve land and other records related to Revenue Board and General Administration since the death of last independent King of Odisha, Mukunda Dev in 1803. The last time the records were reviewed was in 1990.”

On the digitization of records, Sanjeev Hota, a Consultant and Member of INTACH said, “Digitization, though important, is secondary. We need to preserve the original documents first. They are our heritage and we cannot afford them to lose to time.”

“We have been in discussion with the State government for years to make way for this. Thankfully it was formally materialized today,” Hota said.