Minister of State for Information, Education and Culture, Ms Priya Sethi Saturday requested people to deposit their artifacts in the state museum to preserve our heritage for posterity.The Minister said this while visiting the museum at Lal Mandi to take stock of the ongoing construction work at the site. of the new museum complex in Lal Mandi.Ms. Sethi said that SPS museum has huge collection of various forms of antiques and artifacts. She asked people to deposit their artifacts lying with them which would help in preserving these artifacts.The Minister directed the officers to complete the construction work of the new building at the earliest so that local as well as tourists can understand the rich history and heritage of Kashmir. She was informed that new museum building with one lakh square feet space is being constructed at a cost of Rs 35 crore out of which Rs 15 core have been released so far.
The Minister also visited the old SPS museum and viewed the terracotta tiles from Horinar, Pahalgam and Harwan dating back to 2nd and 4th century BC put on display there. She was informed that the museum houses 85,000 historic artifacts in its collection. The Minister was also went through the textile collection including shawls from Srinagar dating back to 19th century, Gilgit manuscript from 6th century, arms and armor from Dogra period, musical instruments, papier-mache and wood work from 19th century.Director SPS museum, Mohammad Shafi Zahid was briefed the minister about the museum.Later, the Minister also visited Tagore Hall and inspected the renovation works there.