dehradun uttara museum of contemporary arts the states first art gallery was inaugurated in september 2017 by cm trivendra singh rawat at mdda complex in dehradun a jaipurbased renowned artist surendra pal joshi had taken the initiative to open a public art gallery for artists and the project was executed by mussoorie dehradun development authority mddaits been almost two years that the gallery was opened but it is yet to get a curator as a result one can see tiles falling apart and leaking roofs of the gallery meanwhile the culture department claimed that it has recently got the charge to maintain the gallery and they have already received applications for the post of curatorresidents and art lovers alleged that within two years of its inauguration the museum has lost its luster a resident said tiles on the walls of the museum are falling apart and rain water is also seeping inside the gallery either the mdda did a shoddy work with its construction or they didnt maintain it properly it is the citys lone art gallery and it should be taken care ofaccording to mdda sources the gallery has an estimated budget of approximate rs 2crore and is divided into two parts the museum and the gallery a cafeteria for visitors was also proposed but work for it is yet to take offtill date the gallery has appointed only two people a receptionist and another man who looks after the entire museum on a temporary basic however the most important person in an art gallery or the curator who knows about the paintings and the handicrafts and explains the same to visitors is missing in the citys lone art museumbeena bhatt director of state culture department told toi the museumcumgallery was initially under mdda and later it was handed over to the culture department we are equally concerned about the gallery and have already started receiving applications for the post of art curator we will employee the curator at the earliestwhen asked the poor condition of the gallery she said we have already started the process to renovate parts of the gallery we are also planning to put up the gallery on rent to hold frequent exhibitions we will encourage local artists and painters to display their work to draw crowd