The historic Gandhi Memorial Museum here has been spruced up for Gandhi Jayanthi on Thursday. The campus has been illuminated and volunteers are busy making the final arrangements for celebrating the 145th birth anniversary of the Mahatma on a grand scale for five days from October 2.
But, the museum is strapped for funds to meet its recurring expenses and conduct programmes. It is counting on donations from philanthropists to build a corpus fund for sustaining the momentum that started with its inception in April 1959.
The museum is being maintained with a fund of Rs.5 crore deposited in nationalised banks. Interest accrued from the deposit is used for maintenance, salaries of staff and other expenses. The State government offers Rs.3 lakh a year for maintenance. Since there is no entrance or parking fee for visitors, the museum has to rely on public support. During 2013-14, it attracted 3,26,617 visitors, of whom 24,229 were foreigners.
There are 25 employees working in the museum and on many occasions the administration, which is run by a management committee, finds it hard to pay their salaries, sources told The Hindu on the eve of Gandhi Jayanthi.
While the bi-monthly electricity bill comes to Rs.70,000, the museum also has to meet expenses for cleaning, maintenance, stationery and other things. Toilets are inadequate for the visitors and staff.
Gandhi Museum secretary M.P. Gurusamy laments that there is no covered auditorium on the 13.5-acre campus and hence it is difficult to host any event when it rains. “We are unable to hold programmes for students in the open. The museum does attract old people since there are no features to attract children. But we plan to have an audio-visual museum for children to know about Gandhiji,” he says.
The museum pins its hopes on philanthropists, public donors and increased government funding to sustain its operations.
The fund crunch notwithstanding, the museum has managed to line up several programmes for the five days with a bill for Rs.2.5 lakh.
