After initial neglect, mainly due lack of manpower, state taking steps to preserve documents, letters from as far back as 14th century
It was in December 1990 that the Maharashtra archive department woke up to the need of scanning and microfilming documents as old as 14th century mohzarnama, a Nizam document written in Farsi, the original notification of the revolt of 1857, original letters signed by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar, and original government files/documents of British rule.
However, 15 years later, the department has succeeded in scanning and microfilming only 3 crore-odd such precious documents out of a total of 15 crore lying in the state's five archive departments.
But one can't blame it on the department alone. Until 2010, there were only three technicians handling the work. They, along with three assistants and two archivists, were scanning around 2,500 documents on an average daily.
Now, there are 54 people for the job and, on an average, 63,000 such documents are getting scanned and filmed daily.
"The speed has gone up manifold ever since we outsourced the work in 2010. Now, we pay Rs11.25 for each frame of microfilming and Rs1.26 for every document scanned; the employees of the private firm work from 8am to 8pm," said a senior government official.
Also, what gave the work further boost was government allocating funds for scanning/microfilming these documents in its annual budget from 2012 onwards. For the last three years, the tourism department is being sanctioned Rs5 crore for preserving these precious documents.
However, it's not all smooth sailing yet. The department does not have a building for itself even now and is scattered over various floors of Elphinstone College right across Jehangir Art Gallery. But sources in the department revealed that a master plan of a swanky Maharashtra archive gallery at the Bandra-Kurla Complex is under process and is awaiting a few approvals.
The new gallery, expected to come up in the next few years, will be a six-floor structure constructed on an area of 13,148sqm. The floor size will be restricted to 1,529sqm. Each floor is expected to have six to seven record rooms. As of now, the estimated cost of this project is around Rs50 crore.
"We are moving fast with respect to sanctioning of the plans and hope that levelling work on the plot starts soon. We want to construct something similar to Delhi's National Archive of India to attract students and tourists," said a senior official.
What's on the anvil?
A swanky building named Maharashtra Archive Department at Bandra-Kurla Complex
Scanned archived documents put up online for public viewing
A booklet/catalogue named 'Archive Department at a glance'
Archive department trivia
Total archive documents: 15 crore
Total documents microfilmed till March 2015: 3.54 crore
Total documents scanned till March 2015: 3.31 crore
Total documents scanned/filmed on an average daily before 2010: 2,500
Total documents scanned/filmed daily now: 63,000
Maharashtra has five archive departments — Mumbai (head office), Pune, Kolhapur, Aurangabad and Nagpur
The oldest document available with it is of the year 1398. It's called mohzarnama and belongs to one of the Nizams.
The department has a total of 220 sanctioned posts, of which 64 posts are lying vacant.
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