Taj Mahal may not be up for adoption soon
Source – indiatimes.com
New Delhi: The tourism ministry is not “actively” seeking bids for the Taj Mahal, India’s most famous monument, under its ‘Adopt A Heritage’ initiative, officials familiar with the matter told ET. It’s not even on the immediate adoption list, given the various issues related to the mausoleum.
“So much is happening there,” said one of the officials. “There was the Supreme Court directive on the Taj Mahal. The monument is huge and lots of issues are involved. There’s no exclusion per se.
But it’s a long list and it is not necessary that every monument will go up for adoption. The committee may decide that it (Taj Mahal) may not need it (adoption) as of now.
In May this year, the Supreme Court had criticised the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for failing to take steps to protect the Taj Mahal, a Unesco World Heritage Site, and asked the central government to consider whether the agency was needed.
The ministry launched the scheme in September last year, inviting both public and private sector companies to become ‘monument mitras’.
The court admonished ASI over the monument being infected by insects and asked the authorities what steps had they taken to prevent this.
The Centre told the court that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) was considering the Supreme Court’s decision to appoint international experts to look into the matter.
The Taj Mahal is one of about 100 sites listed under the ‘Adopt A Heritage’ scheme. Monuments such as the Qutub Minar (Yatra.com), Safdarjung Tomb (Travel Corporation of India), Jantar Mantar (SBI Foundation) and Red Fort (Dalmia Bharat Ltd), Sun Temple, Konark (TK International) have been signed up for adoption.
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