June 15, 2018
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Taj Mahal may not be up for adoption soon

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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.

We are not working on it (Taj). There are some monuments which may not need immediate adoption — Taj Mahal is not on the immediate list.”

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 adoption scheme was mired in controversy in April after opposition parties accused the government of leasing out monuments such as the Red Fort to private entities.

Tourism minister KJ Alphons had said it was aimed at ensuring better maintenance and amenities for visitors. He denied that monuments such as Red Fort were being leased out or rebranded as alleged by the Opposition.

The ministry launched the scheme in September last year, inviting both public and private sector companies to become ‘monument mitras’.

The Supreme Court had earlier expressed concern that the Taj Mahal was changing colour and had taken the government to task, saying “perhaps you do not care”.

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.

On Sunday, some members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad vandalised the western gate of the monument, upon which the ASI filed a police complaint against the rightwing group.

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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