Kolkata: Hours after chief minister’s adviser Subrata Gupta assured Nehru Children’s Museum authorities of help with the upgradation of fire safety norms so that the facility that is extremely popular among children continues to operate, a team from the Kalighat fire station visited the museum on Wednesday evening and carried out an inspection of the building on Jawaharlal Nehru Road.Following a request from the fire officials, the museum authorities on Thursday submitted the building plan for the six-storey facility to the fire dept.Fire and emergency services director general Anuj Sharma said, “We will provide them with the recommendation that will outline what is required for the museum to operate safely.”The six-storey building has two staircases – one at the front and another at the back and a lift.The museum, visualised and conceptualised by Jugal Srimal, houses the epic stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in clay mode. lt also has a Ganesh gallery with over 300 Ganesh idols and over 1100 costume dolls from 96 countries. It runs classes in dance, painting, recitation, drama for 900 children and gives financial assistance of Rs 2,400 to 265 children with disabilities.The museum management decided to close down the museum keeping in mind the safety of the children as they cannot bear the cost of the fire upgrade amounting to Rs 50 lakh. Moreover, the museum has dolls and idols which are combustible.Museum director Sudip Srimal said, “Since the govt has assured us support in upgrading the fire norms and we have announced that the museum will be kept open and the classes will resume from the first week of Sept. The team from Kalighat fire station carried out an inspection of the building on Wednesday evening and also asked us to submit the building plan. We submitted it on Thursday morning.” He added, “The meeting with the CM’s adviser left us overwhelmed and happy as they described the museum as the ‘heritage of Bengal’.”The museum authorities also posted on social media to inform guardians, donors and well-wishers that they are not closing down and thanked the govt.
