Chief minister Nitish Kumar lays the foundation stone of Satyagraha Bhavan at Gandhi Sangrahalaya in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, April 10: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today laid the foundation stone of Satyagraha Bhavan, an archive for objects and documents related to the Satyagraha Movement, on the premises of Gandhi Sangrahalaya in the state capital.

A 10-ft-long barbed wire structure of Mahatma Gandhi’s spectacles, which was displayed during the Bihar Divas celebrations last month, was also gifted to the Sangrahalaya by the human resource development department.

Nitish appreciated the model and said: “This is amazing. The kind of art portrayed through this structure is incredible. I had seen this at the three-day Bihar Divas celebrations. This model will surely attract many people to this building.”

Artist Sanjeev Sinha, who created the 10-ft-long structure, told The Telegraph that he wanted to portray the message of peace and harmony through the pair of spectacles. Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle in South Africa was the theme behind his creation.

Nitish said: “Construction of this building on the premises of Gandhi Sangrahalaya is a good step. Everything related to the Satyagraha Movement will be kept in the building, including the charkha used by Gandhiji and other objects.”

About lending a helping hand to the Gandhi Sangrahalaya, the chief minister said: “I am always ready to extend every possible help to the Sangrahalaya. I don’t know how much today’s generation is aware about Gandhi but it is important for them to know. I want the younger generation to learn from here.”

Nitish appreciated the work done by Razi Ahmed, the director of the Gandhi Sangrahalaya.

He said: “I get worried about who would be the next person to look after the Sangrahalaya. This place needs a lot of dedication and hard work and there are very few people who really fulfil the criteria. This is a place of inspiration and every one should learn something from it. Monitoring the upcoming building will also be important.”

The chief minister, who has launched stringent measures to control corruption, said: “The society is clean but there are some people who want to pollute it. I have begun the drive against corruption and the people are gradually accepting it. Nobody wants to tolerate corruption. I did not do anything, people always had the urge to fight corruption, it was just waiting to explode. The issue just needed to be ignited,” Nitish added.