State Archives head’s extension set to spur split

Director’s special

Technical glitches come in the way of bifurcation of the department

Hyderabad: With the Telangana government giving a one-year contract to Dr Zareena Parveen as director of AP State Archives Department soon after her retirement and one of the assistant directors moving the court for being ignored to the director’s post, the bifurcation of the organisation that put on hold has received a fillip.

Rechristening of the Oriental Manuscripts Library, unrest among the employees of the State Archives Department and the unavailability of funds since bifurcation triggered the urgency for splitting the archives. A senior official of the State Archives says, “The digitisation of works came to a halt for almost eight months as the AP government did not allot funds. Once the division is completed, there would be clarity.”

A senior official on condition of anonymity said the issue of filling up the director’s post was in a way a blessing in disguise as it had brought the focus back on dividing the State Archives. 70 per cent of the archival material is in Persian and Urdu and the government retained the service of Dr Zareena Parveen who is an expert in Persian language and served the organisation for 28 years. The official said, “It however does not mean that there is no dearth of people but at the moment she fits the bill.”

Two advisory committees comprising ten members each for both Telangana and AP submitted their reports to the government months ago. Officials say there was no disagreement on major issues and expect the division of archival material and employees soon. According to reliable sources, once the bifurcation is completed, all GOs of the 13 districts of AP and 10 districts of Telangana since 1956 would be kept in Hyderabad and copies would be given if and when needed.

There are more than 50 million records at the State Archives head office in Hyderabad. Dr Zareena Parveen, director of AP State Archives said, “The Andhra records were transferred to Hyderabad in the month of May, 1957. The survey and settlement records and other Andhra records that were transferred from Kurnool (which was the erstwhile capital of AP) to Central Record Office are now in the headquarters at Tarnaka and are kept in a separate repository.”

Records dating back to 1406 till 1948 are in Persian and post 1948 are in Urdu. About 1.55 lakh paper manuscripts of Mughal era and a large number in ‘Shikista script’ in old cursive style are valuable. P Anuradha Reddy of INTACH said, “Petitions, royal orders and records right from the Mughal period to the Nizams are a treasure. The digitisation work that started on a right note took a backseat due to State bifurcation will now be completed once the dust settles down.”

By T P Venu