Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Protected sites and monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will soon get legal cover. The National Monument Authority (NMA) has expedited the process of framing heritage by-laws for these sites and monuments with support from Union culture ministry.
The NMA has engaged heritage expert agencies and universities to prepare the draft regulations mandated by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act 2010.In the last 10 years, by-laws only for seven monuments/sites have been framed and presented before Parliament.
According to ministry officials, ASI’s regional directors, defined as competent authority, were entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the draft. However, only 101 could be prepared till January 2020 due to the workload.
“A meeting was held in the ministry in November to determine factors or stumble blocks. Major hurdles preventing the progress were identified and decisions were taken. One was to outsource preparing by-laws to heritage expert bodies to ease the burden,” said an official.
Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) was already mentioned in the Act and following approval from the ministry, more than 30 expert heritage bodies such as Reach Foundation, Chennai, Aga Khan Trust for Culture and School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, were added to the list of experts agencies to prepare the by-laws. “We are in the process of engaging 8-10 more agencies so that we can have a larger pool of expert bodies,” said an official.
There are 3,690 protected sites under ASI’s jurisdiction. Amjad Ali Shah’s mausoleum in Lucknow and Sher Shah Gate, Khair-ul Manazil and Purana Quila, all in Delhi, are among the seven monuments for which by-laws have been presented in Parliament.
