Odisha Inks Pact With INTACH To Preserve Old Revenue Records After 32 Years

Bhubaneswar: The state government has signed an agreement with the Odisha chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to preserve the priceless records under the Board of Revenue for posterity.

The INTACH Odisha chapter would be handed over around 4,000 board of revenue records to be preserved with scientific and modern technology methods, said an official.

It is pertinent to mention here that valuable records and archives dating back to 1803, when the English rulers had annexed the then independent Odisha province with Bengal-Bihar, are in the State Archive. The records are assessed every 30 years.

Special Secretary, Board of Revenue, Nihar Ranjan Das said the records were last reviewed in 1990. While the important ones in good condition were sent to the State Archives for safe custody and those unimportant were destroyed.

Hota said digitisation is important but preserving the original documents comes first. “They are our heritage and we cannot afford to lose these to time,” he added.

These old records also come in handy for administrative reference and research works.