Bangla Academy Bhasha Andolan Jadughar and Jatiya Sahitya O Lekhak Jadughar, housed at Burdwan House of the academy, remain under lock and key most of the time.
Of the two museums highlighting the Bangla language and literature, Bhasha Andolan Jadughar was opened by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on February 1, 2010 and Sahitya O Lekhak Jadughar on February 1, 2011, said the academy’s chief librarian, Mobarak Hossain.
He said there was no post of curator for the museums while two persons were engaged to look after the museums.
‘When anybody comes, we open the museums for the visitor,’ he said, adding, ‘Actually, some construction works are going on and that is why we keep the museums locked.’
Mobarak Hossain said the museums were unique as there were no such museums in the subcontinent.
Bhasha Andolan Jadughar is on the second floor of the Burdwan House.
In the absence of Ariful Islam, who has been appointed to look after the museum, the academy’s co-director (planning) Mohammad Kamal Uddin Ahmed said the museum has some documents and pictures on the language movement.
It has also memorabilia such as language martyr Abul Barakat’s educational certificates and Shafiur Rahman’s dress, spectacles and family photos, photos on language movement from 1948 and paper cuttings from the Daily Azad, Ittefaq and Pakistan Observer.
Jatiya Sahitya O Lekhak Jadughar on the first floor of Burdwan House has photocopied scripts and maps on the evolution of the Bangla alphabet, photos of ancient, middle and modern time literary works, photos of different eminent literati and memorabilia of Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranth Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and others.
Mohammad Haider Hossain, appointed to look after the museum, said many people visited the museum after it was opened in February this year.
‘The visitors who come to the museum write down their comments on the comment book,’ he said.
From the comment book, it was found that no visitors came to the museum in March and only two visitors came in April.
The officer said many of the visitors did not write comments.
Shahida Khatun, director of the establishment, planning and training division, said the museums remain open from 11:00am to 3:00pm as the museums were yet to be completed.
‘We keep the museums closed for some times of the day because of the ongoing development and collection work of the museums,’ she added.
Shahida Khatun said the academy has a plan to transform the Burdwan House into a full-fledged museum and added that the construction work of a new building at the academy complex is going on for that purpose.
She said the construction work was supposed to be finished in last year’s June but it could be finished in June this year.
The administrative offices of the Burdwan House would be transferred to the new building then, the director added.
Courtesy of New Age
