PATNA: Inaugurated with pomp and show by CM Nitish Kumar in September 2013 in the presence of 200-odd Buddhists from 30 countries, the museum inside the Buddha Smriti Park on city's Fraser Road is a picture of neglect these days.A sum of around Rs 90 crore was spent on this museum's non-structural work alone. It has on display artefacts related to the life and times of Lord Buddha, an orientation theatre, an artificial cave for meditation and an image gallery that showcases the Lord's teachings through light and sound, paintings and murals.The murals have started developing cracks. So has the ceiling perhaps as the rainwater trickles down through it during the monsoon, posing threat to the antiquities.Not that the state government is not aware of the sorry state of what was once touted as a state-of-the-art museum. The museum's former curator, Vijay Kumar, wrote to the director (museums) in February this year, informing him about the lack of drinking water facility and lack of exhaust fans in the toilets on the museum premises.The floor of the theatre as well as the staircase need immediate repairs. "Because of the non-conducive environment, the artworks on display at the museum are getting damaged. The entry gate of treasure gallery has broken," the letter was quoted by an official as having stated.Other problems as mentioned in the letter include defunct projectors in the meditation cave, snag in the device used to listen to the chants and presence of termites and rats.

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