patna despite the governments plan to promote tourism several archaeological and historical sites in the state with potential to attract tourists remain neglected ashokan pillars at rampurva in west champaran are no different one has to take uneven roads across the agricultural fields to visit the site and the brick kilns near the pillars speak volume of how such an important historical place has been ignored jogendra manjhi 50 the caretaker of this site said only three to four people come to see the pillars he said had there been a road the number of visitors would have been more manjhi who gives the details of lord buddha and king ashoka to the visitors has his own grievances i have been working here for the past 30 years with a hope of getting a permanent job now that hope is waning i started with rs10 per day and now i get rs6000 per month he saidformer head of history department at patna university professor daisy narain said it is only at rampurwa that the twin pillars are found while one pillar has edicts inscribed another has no inscription one pillar had a bull and another had a lion while the bull capital has been placed at rashtrapati bhavan the lion capital is at indian museum in kolkatashe said the government should involve local people for taking care of such important sites and added that smoke in the vicinity will harm it shiv kumar mishra a member of indian national trust for art and cultural heritage and also in charge of gandhi memorial at bhitiharwa said these pillars were in the open with only the inscribed portion covered from top because of rainfall these were getting corroded however a shed was made some four to five years back but that too hardly protects it from rainfall and can blow away in heavy windmishra said not only these twin pillars but the area nearby has also a rich history for instance bhitiharwa ashram set up by mahatma gandhi in 1917 is nearly 4km away from these pillars in fact at bhitiharwa ashram six to eight people come daily in spite of the fact that there is no facility of public transport to reach there and visitors have to book private vehicles he added when told about the neglect of rampurva pillars state art culture and youth department minister alok ranjan said he will get the site inspected by a team and take necessary steps i will also write to the district magistrate to know the situation said ranjan adding as far as construction of road or promoting of this site is concerned it will be done by the tourism department