SHIKARPUR, Oct 3: The director-general of the culture department, Moonis Ayaz Shaikh, said that the culture department had remained almost inactive due to a lack of attention and the poor performance of bureaucrats, who failed to realize their responsibilities to preserve the cultural heritage.

He said that now special steps were being taken to preserve the cultural heritage. He was addressing writers and poets on the occasion of an Eid Milan party arranged by the Shikarpur branch of the Sindhi Adabi Sangat at Qadir Bux Bedil Public Library here on Thursday.

Mr Ayaz said that the Sindh government had approved schemes for the construction of a cultural complex in every district of the province and life insurance for writers and poets to support them in times of trouble.

He said that the Sindhi writers had always played a vital role in the history of the country and still they continued their struggles for the rights of the downtrodden. He said that the Sindh government had allocated Rs4 million to support writers and poets financially.

Speaking on the occasion renowned writers Dr Badaruddin Ujjan, Adal Soomro, Zubair Soomro, Naseem Bukhari, Mumtaz Mangi, Aziz Qasmi, Anwar Soomro and others lauded the services of Moonis Ayaz and hoped that he would continue his efforts for the promotion of culture. The writers and poets called for setting up of a museum on the premises of Bedil Public Library in Shikarpur.