The first attempt at preservation was taken up in 2000 when college authorities appealed to the National Archives of India for an amount of Rs 2,66,667. Accordingly, 75 per cent of the sum was given in 2001and the remaining sum of Rs 66, 667 was to be paid by the state government. Four years later, the state government released the funds in March 2005. The college got a second grant for campus network development the same year from UGC amounting to Rs 35 lakh. Only Rs 6 lakh was spent on restoration work. The third grant of Rs 4 crore was received in 2006 from Bimal Jalan under the MPLAD scheme, Rs 2.5 crore was allocated for campus development and library upgrade. Restoration work has been very slow owing to the lack of funds and manpower. Shobhan Ruj was given the task of de-acidifying more than 16,000 pages. “The amounts that we allotted each time for restoration have never been enough,” said Prof Prabir Dasgupta of the Geology Department who was instrumental in getting the restoration work started.