satara cobwebs mildewed walls worn out carpets shabby wallpapers and foul smell could be just a few words to describe the shri chhatrapati shivaji maharaj museum in satara managed by the state department of archaeology and museumsconstructed with the aim to revive and reveal the varied culture and lifestyle of the 17th and 18th centuries the museum was inaugurated in 1970 by the then union home minister y b chavan in the presence of chhatrapati sumitraraje bhosalesprawling across a 44000 sq ft builtup area the museum is a perfect example of government negligence divided in two sections it has four main galleries for weapons inscriptions paintings and textileassistant curator bhaskar madhav mehendale who has been associated with the museum since its inception says the collection of old articles began in the 60s in fact this is the only museum housing chhatrapati shivaji maharajs takth throne from raigad he claimsthe weapons gallery has nearly 385 arms the picture gallery has around 246 pictures including glass paintings miniature paintings wall paintings and transparencies from the 17th and 18th centuries likewise the textile gallery has around 231 intricately carved zari works some of them embedded in pure gold and silver however reality showcases a contrast picture altogether the once majestic throne of shivaji which witnessed many a battles and arrays lies in dust today worse is the fate of the 17th century wall paintings such as the sri krishna jambuvanti whose crevices are carelessly filled with industrial cement we preserve the artifacts with an insecticide naphthalene balls and suntha dry ginger says mehendale the monthly expenditure on the museum maintenance is not more than rs 5000 including electricity and phone bills till date the museum has never had a brochure or booklet besides this there is no guide or gallery assistant in the museum mehendale says the gallery assistants post has been vacant for more than two months currently there are only 10 employees in the museum monthly expenditure on the staff payment is around rs 36000 while the yearly collection of the entry fee is a meagre rs 35000in march last year the archaeology department proposed a rs 188 crore project to move the museum to a new place in hajeri mal satarathe proposed museum building on a four acre plot of land would have a builtup area of 343533 sq mt it would have 10 new galleries a library conference hall separate gallery of forts and a huge landscape garden however nothing has gone beyond pen and paper laments mehendaleaccording to mehendale in august last year district guardian minister ajit pawar had sent a reminder to finance minister jayant patil requesting rs 7640 lakh for the construction work of the first phase of the museum building project but so far there has been no reply from his office