Archaeology Department hit by staff crunch

NAGERCOIL: The State Archeology Department (SAD), established to conserve and preserve ancient monuments and conduct excavations at historical sites, is running without sufficient staff.A source from SAD told Express that the department has eight district archeological offices and 14 district archeological site museums in various parts of the state.The eight district archeological offices created in the 70s are located in Chennai, Chidambaram, Coimbatore, Madurai, Nagercoil, Tirunelveli and Dharmapuri. Thereafter, no new district postings were created. At present, District Archeological Officers are present only in Chennai and Madurai, while the remaining posts are vacant.  As far as district archeological site museums are concerned, of the 14 museums, curators have been appointed for six museums. These curators administer the remaining museums on additional charge. Down south, the District Archeological Officer in Madurai is looking after Nagercoil and Tirunelveli offices on additional charge. This officer is set to retire in December this year. As of now, over 75 percent of the posts are vacant and no new appointments have been made in the last five years, the source added. The official also said that in 2010, the SAD had recruited 13 officials including a Muslim and a history graduate. But, the Muslim and the history graduate were omitted on the grounds that they were ‘ineligible’, who later moved the court, and currently all the 13 posts are still vacant.Chenthee Natarajan, founder of Chembavalam Research Base, Nagercoil, said: “New recruits should be made to work under seniors so that they can know about future excavation projects to be done.”