New Delhi, Sept. 10: Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medallion may be lost forever, but other national treasures have a glimmer of hope.

The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to implement a plan to protect artefacts scattered in museums across the country.

In a proposal submitted to the court last year, the Centre had agreed to make an inventory of artefacts housed in different museums.

But little has been done since then, activist Subhas Dutta, who drew the court’s attention to the problem, complained.

After hearing him today, the court told the government to state how and when it planned to implement the proposal.

“The government is directed to file an affidavit on the specific timeframe and modalities within which the action plan would be implemented,” a two-judge bench said.

Dutta had said that no theft could ever occur without “insider” connivance.

He said external agencies should draw up parallel inventories of artefacts in every museum so that items which go missing are noticed during audits.