Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, September 11:
A raging fire that broke out at the famed Andro Cultural Complex in Imphal East district today substantially damaged the house built in the ancestral designs of the Kuki community, Malai Kuki Inn and ancestrally designed houses of other communities as well.
The eastern side of the cultural integrity pillar put up at the cultural complex was also damaged.
The fire broke out at about 11.30 am today.
The Malai Kuki Inn was burnt to cinders and not a single rare artifacts present at the Inn could be retrieved.
A house of the Mao community which is yet to be inaugurated, a traditional Meitei outhouse with ten fire hearths and the thatched roofing of a place where a bullock cart was kept were saved from total destruction by the people of Andro.
Initial reports suggest that the fire may have broken out due to a high increase in the voltage of power supplied.
According to the Director of the cultural complex Mutua Bahadur, the fire destroyed the facsimile of the stone inscriptions kept at the Malai Kuki Inn, knives used by the fore fathers of the Meitei community, 60 coins belonging to the Indo-British era.
The Malai Kuki Inn was built in 1992 as per the customs and traditions of the community.
Mutua Bahadur also expressed his profound gratitude to the people of Andro for their timely help in fighting the fire.
The fire destroyed a number of items which can never be bought by money, said Bahadur.
If aid comes in then the burnt houses may be rebuilt by December this year, said the Director of the Cultural Centre.