ahmedabad gujarat does not seem to respect its glorious past which is safeguarded for the future generation in the museums why else would the custody of invaluable historical political cultural and social heritage be bestowed in hands of people who are not even qualified for holding such posts toi investigations have revealed that the positions of director of museums in the state are lying vacant for the past oneandahalf years whats more of the 14 government run museums in the state only two have qualified curators the rest of them are run by class iii employees gujarat has 14 museums spread over different parts of the state this includes museums in vadodara junagadh bhavnagar shamlaji saputara patan vadnagar bardoli tharad bardoli and kutch experts said that the candidates who hold post graduate degree or diploma in museology are qualified to become curators in gujarat these courses are offered only in the ms university such qualified curators are posted only in two museumsjunagadh and jamnagar the remaining museums have incharge heads who are class iii employees and do not have the required qualification to be the custodians of our splendid heritage the state museums safeguard priceless items of historic significance including the remnants of the life of the iron man of indiasardar vallabhbhai patel his books clothes and philosophy there are patola sarees of heritage value docoments related to the sun temple centuries old embroideries from the land of kutch tribal heritage among other items of historical and cultural significance officials said that six months back an attempt was made to rectify the situation a proposal was sent to the department of museums to fill the positions of curators by hiring degree or diploma in museology passouts on a fixed pay scale of rs 15000 they could later be absorbed at the positions after they get requisite experience the proposal was rejected by the finance department which said that only a salary of rs 4500 can be offered the expert said secretary of sports youth and cultural acitivities departmentbhagyesh jha said accepted that the positions of curators in most museums were indeed lying vacant these positions will be filled up soon jha said he conceded that if there were any technical problems in the management of museums experts from the department are rushed to resolve them