School students inside the Town Hall museum. Pictures by Kishor Roychowdhury

Shankar Ghosh: Why is the Town Hall not very popular, compared with the other community halls or clubs in the city, for holding meetings and small functions? Is the Town Hall and its museum earning a profit? How many people visit it per year?

The Town Hall has accommodation for around 600 people. Besides, the acoustics are not up to the mark and there is no air circulation system. Municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay has asked for funds to renovate it.

Second, I think no museum in our country earns a profit. The total annual earning is little over Rs 4 lakh, while the expenditure is more than Rs 40 lakh. About 50,000 people, including school students, visit the museum every year.