It is one thing to talk about heritage. It is quite another to do something about it. There, of course, can be many yardsticks to measure this; one of them being how a generation treats its monuments.
As many as 249 centrally protected monuments in India are currently under encroachment. That, of course, is the latest official figure that was revealed to the Lok Sabha by Union Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, V Narayanasamy on Wednesday.
The minister has attributed several factors to this including rapid urbanisation, increasing pressures on land, and commercialisation.
The Superintending Archaeologists of the Circles concerned are delegated the powers of the Central Government for the removal of encroachments under the provisions of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites & Remains Act, 1958 and Rules 1959. But looks like they have not been doing their job.
These 249 monuments are spread over 22 Circles, the biggest culprit among them being Lucknow, where 66 monuments are under encroachment. Uttar Pradesh, whose Chief Minister Mayawati has the dubious record of installing the maximum number of statues in recent times, is the worst state of the lot. In Agra, 13 monuments are under encroachment. These include the Jagner fort and the mound known as the old for of Kannauj.
Closeby Delhi is not doing too well either, with 11 encroached monuments. These include the tomb of Razia Sultan, Purana Qila and the Rajpur Mutiny Cemetery. Still on the Golden Circuit, Jaipur has two — the Ranthambore and Chittorgarh forts.
Second on the dirty list is Dharwad Circle with 56 monuments under encroachment. Aurangabad is third with 15.
Narayanaswamy said in a written statement, "They (the Superintending Archaeologists) have also been vested with the powers of Estate Officer under the provisions of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971 to initiate action against the encroachers. They interact with the District authorities and the State Police on regular basis to prevent such illegal activities and to remove encroachers.
"The Archaeological Survey of India has deployed watch and ward staff as well as private security guards at all the sensitive monuments prone to encroachments. Police Armed Guards, Home Guards, and CISF have also been deployed at a few sensitive monuments. Wherever feasible and necessary, efforts have been made to fence around the centrally protected monuments, and archaeological sites and remains."
Whether these officials will act is anybody's guess. At worst, they will act highhandedly and physically throw away those who might have encroached these monuments. In all likelihood, they would be the homeless kind. It would be a wonderful way to have the poor turn against the monuments.
Monuments, these days, are not on anyone's priority lists. We are not even talking of the state of the monuments themselves. One shudders to think what will come out of any State of India's Monuments report.
