Agra gets UN stamp on heritage plan

Vijay Upadhyay
AGRA Agra, the only city in the world with three world heritage monuments to its credit, may soon receive the distinction of the world's only river front "heritage monuments club". A draft proposal for the formation of a heritage zone in Agra, clubbing the two world heritage monuments, Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, with two other contemporary river front monuments Itmad-ud-Daullah and Sikandra was passed recently at the UNESCO meet held in Durban.
 Talking to The Pioneer on Monday, Superintending Archaeologist Agra, D Dayalan said the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had sent a proposal for the inclusion of Itmad-ud-Daullah and Sikandra in the UNESCO list of World Heritage monuments but instead, UNESCO itself forwarded a proposal of forming a "monument club" encompassing the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort, associating Itmad-ud-Daullah and Sikandra with these two monuments as sub-world heritage monuments.
Also, he said, in the UNESCO meet held recently in Durban, it has been decided that the strip of riverside land connecting the Agra Fort to the Taj alongside the Yamuna should be declared a "Heritage Zone", banning all new constructions and commercial activities in this zone without prior permission from the ASI.
According to Mr Dayalan, the theoretical proposal for the heritage zone had been approved at the Durban meet and a team of UNESCO experts shall be arriving in Agra for a site-survey in the months of October-November, before the proposal could be finally implemented.
The land earmarked as a heritage zone by the UNESCO is the same stretch of sand-filled riverbank which was in the news during the Taj Heritage Corridor controversy, following which the UNESCO had threatened to withdraw the Taj's World Heritage status The issue eventually led to the toppling of the Mayawati Government in UP.
Now, after a theoretical UNESCO approval for the development of a heritage zone, the ASI seeks to make the two world heritage monuments completely secure from such damaging activities in their vicinity for which special regulations shall be passed.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)
Email: piovijay@yahoo.co.in, Ph: +91-9412282297, 9319108697

Comments

Anonymous said…
Let's hope that these actions will help to safeguard the UNESCO World Heritage Sites and it's valuable surroundings!
12:21 AM
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