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Eight antiquities stolen from Indian monuments

Eight antiquities have been stolen from monuments and sites maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India in the last 3 years.

New Delhi: Eight antiquities have been stolen from monuments and sites maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India in the last three years and separate FIRs have been lodged in this regard, the government told the Rajya Sabha.
In 2009, antiquities were stolen from Gargach Temple in Baran district of Rajasthan in 2009 while 4 antiquities were stolen from Rajasthan, West Bengal and Karnataka in 2010, Culture Minister Kumari Selja said. In 2011, a nandi sculpture and another statue was stolen from a temple in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh, she told Rajya Sabha. FIRs have been lodged in connection with the incidents. In reply to a separate question, she said the National Mission for Manuscripts has set up two Manuscript Resource Centres -- one in the Directorate of State Archives and Archaeology, Jammu and Kashmir, and the other in the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh, for documenting the manuscripts available in the state. "The Mission has already documented 37,379 manuscripts through these Centres," she said. "Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) has completed the micro-filming of the entire collection of 5437 manuscripts of Shri Ranbir Sanskrit Research Institute, Jammu. Besides this, IGNCA has also microfilmed seven manuscripts belonging to Charer-E-Sharif," Selja said. She also said ASI has received a report on the discovery of Old Majitha fort in Amritsar in Punjab. "The report states that the historic Majitha fort surrounded by agriculture land belongs to the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1801 to 1839 AD). A few structural remains, partially exposed having a double defensive system, are in a ruined condition," she said. PTI