'Arms used by Britishers to be put on display at proposed museum'

KOLKATA: Officials of Hare Street police station handed over some arms used during the British period to the office of the Administrator General and Official Trustee of West Bengal at a function on Friday.

Sumit Dasgupta, officer-in- charge of Hare Street police station handed over the arms to Biplab Roy, Administrator General and Official Trustee of West Bengal.

The arms used by the British government in the 18th century included double barrel and single barren guns, iron made axes and 'bhojalis'. These arms had been dumped at Hare Street police station for years without any care.

Many of them have got rust on them and needs immediate cleaning and maintenance.

Roy, Administrator General and Official Trustee of West Bengal said these arms will be put up at the proposed museum. "There are arms which have been stacked in old police station and they have not been used for generations. Attempts will be made to recover them and then put up in the proposed museum," he said.

It is not very clear whether the police had used the iron axes and 'bhojalis' or they were seized from the criminals in Kolkata. The arms will be segregated and their history will be put up along with them in the museum.

"Thousands of century-old arms are lying in the stack-yard of police stations across Bengal and we have requested the officers to hand them over to us so that we can put them up in the museum," Roy said.

The office of the Administrator General and Official Trustee of West Bengal is preparing an inventory of different items from statues idols , coins to arms which it has received from various sources.

A unique museum and research centre of rare documents will soon come up in the city of joy. From a silver coin of Alexander the Great, a Mughal painting brushed with gold dust to the will of Dwarkanath Tagore, the museum will showcase the 'rarest of the rare' documents.