Hyderabad: The Telangana State Archives Department has come under the scanner of Lokayukta for alleged poor upkeep of archives under it. On Jan. 24, two professors of Maulana Azad National Urdu University raised the issue of poor upkeep of historical documents by the archives department at a book launch in the university which was presided over by the Lokayukta B. Subhashan Reddy.
The Lokayukta took up the issue suo motu and the next day an order was issued which said, “It came to light that in the Department of Archives, State of Telangana, Hyderabad, lot of dust has gathered and the same is not being cleared and also the problem of termites exists and the same is resulting in the loss of invaluable treasure of old documents, literature etc., which is the treasure for the future generations and has to be preserved and protected.” The department has been told to investigate and submit a report by April 28, 2016.
It has over 30 million documents spanning four centuries, from the reign of Moghul emperors Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb to the end of Asaf Jahi dynasty in Persian, Urdu, Telugu and Marathi.
The archives department has the second largest collection of Moghul documents in the country after New Delhi.
