Ancient heritage remains and invaluable cultural property attract visitors and art connoisseurs from across the world to different destinations. India being one of the richest depository of ancient cultural remains happens to be the most popular destination for global visitors. More so, very many ancient heritage sites in India are unguarded, and so are very many strewn statues and ancient iconic cultural property at a number of places which happen to be happy grazing ground for the antisocial elements of the society involved in illicit trafficking of invaluable ancient treasure. Thereby, country does not only loose them but, history gets lost as each of the antiquity and cultural property represent the socio economic strata of the place and era they belong to. Thus the importance of museums may well be understood in taking care of their collections safe and secure for future generations to view, study and learn about glorious past. There is mutual understanding between several countries for repatriation of stolen antiquities to their original country. In recent past, there have been instances when India has received such icons 2 Museum Security "Amritkaal" Vision 2047 from Canada, Australia, U. S. and some other countries. But, this would be possible only when their whereabouts are traced and ownership proved. Every country has own policy with regards to ancient monuments and cultural property. There are internationally recognized auction houses in some countries who auction the acquired antique items on a regular basis. India has been successful in retrieving some priceless collections from them even by paying their cost. Jewelry of Nizam of Hyderabad is one such example. Even, our honorable prime minister took personal interest in retrieving iconic antique pieces from several affluent countries, in recent past. Obviously, there is a need to enforce some stricter ways to protect our heritage remains from being smuggled out of the country. Besides, there are a number of security related matters for the archaeological wealth to be taken care-of. Sustainability should be the key factor in ensuring continuity of any security related system. This calls for raising a dedicated security task force to cover all the museums, monuments and tourist sites as they are the revenue earners for our country. Presently, there is no single organized taskforce to take care of above places. Personnel from different security agencies viz, departmental watch and ward staff, private security agencies, state police, Home Guard and CISF personnel are posted at different locations and are functioning independently. None of them have special training for providing proper and desired security cover to the museums, monuments and sites. Security has a very big canopy to perform with diligence and perseverance. "Be polite but firm" should be the key-word for the security personnel while dealing with the visitors in impressing them with "Do's and Don'ts" at museums and monuments. This calls for imparting very good training on behavioral attitude to all the security personnel.
Museum Security has a very big canvas. Security requirements differ from place to place, so does the role of guards. Therefore, security personnel should be suitably trained to perform well as per requirements of client. Currently, there is no specialised security task force to provide services at the museums, monuments and identified tourist sites. It is therefore desirable to have a special task force which must be Swift to adopt any desirable functional changes at any point in time. This task force may be raised as "Heritage Protection Force". There are some noticeable shortfalls in security scenario at the museums, monuments and tourist places which requires to be ironed out well before 2047, "Amritk Sooner the better. Capt. Pran Ranjan Prasad elucidated these aspects very clearly in this book. He is a multifaceted person having expertise in a number of very important fields.
Recipient of "Jharkhand Ratna" award, Capt. Pran Ranjan Prasad (MBA) is an Army Veteran and Former Chief Security Officer of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). He also held additional charge of IT Head and Estate Manager in ASI. He did a tenure as OSD at UPSC. He happened to be the key member of the committee which drafted the "Comprehensive Policy on Security of Museums". two This is his third book. He has authored books earlier which are available on Amazon online portal. First book titled-"Safeguarding Heritage Monumental Glory", in 2008 and second one A "Museum Security Challenges and Remedy)", in has won many accolades both army as also in civil career. He is associated professionally with some companies and NGOs, Capt. Pran has been a good sportsman and sound professional
Hindu (932)
Agriculture (121)
Ancient (1092)
Archaeology (770)
Architecture (564)
Art & Culture (918)
Biography (716)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (168)
Emperor & Queen (569)
Islam (242)
Jainism (310)
Literary (889)
Mahatma Gandhi (378)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Visual Search
Manage Wishlist