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
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Woman torched to death by inlaws on International Women's Day in India

AGRA.               It could serve as a well-placed slap in the face of the the groups of so-called women's rights activists who all too recently celebrated International Women’s Day, fervently praising the contribution made by women to the society and vowing to prevent violence against the feminine gender comfortably ensconced in luxurious clubs and hotels.    While the world was busy celebrating women’s day, a young girl was murdered in cold-blood, torched to death by her in-laws in Kayamganj town of Farrukhabad district of Uttar Pradesh, alongwith a 6-month fetus inside her, just three years after marriage.    Two weeks have passed since the grisly murder but the local police appears to be in no hurry to catch the absconding in-laws who doused the girl in kerosene and left her to burn and die on the street, making good their escape while the locals awaited for the police to arrive. Meanwhile, the victim’s mother Archana Sharma has suffered from a strok
Read more

Chambal Bandit for 30 years, Nirbhay retires to the Himalayas

VIJAY UPADHYAY ETAWAH/BHIND. For 30 years, he ruled the Chambal with a steady hand but weakened by age and continually dogged by the police, Nirbhay Gujjar, the last remaining edifice of the old stock of bandits from India’s own “Wild-Wild West”, may have at last taken a peaceful retirement in the Himalayas, that he was vying for a long time. Reports filtering in from the Chambal ravines of Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh and the adjoining Bhind of Madhya Pradesh indicate that this most feared bandit of Chambal has finally given up the ghost, following the rising waters of the river and the depleting strength of his gang due to regular encounters by the police of these two states. According to the residents of the villages of Etawah, Bhind & Kalpi, Jaloun districts, Nirbhay has not been seen in these parts for quite some time and his regular contacts in the villages are no longer active. The gang has even gone untraceable on the electronic surveillance net of the police. Sources
Read more

Playing scribe's role at wedding costs photographer his life

VIJAY UPADHYAY AGRA. Essaying the role of a photo-journalist cost a wedding photographer his life in Agra last week when he shot the footage of some history-sheeter criminals dancing in a wedding procession. The criminals murdered him the same night in a bid to retrieve the incriminating video. This was the police's conclusion five days after the murder; now the groom's family is being interrogated for the names of the criminals who had participated in the wedding. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police, Etmadpur, MM Beg, Sunil Sharma, a resident of Fulatti Bazar area of Agra was murdered on Thursday at Sunil Singh's wedding. His video-camera was taken away by the unknown criminals. Mr Beg said upon interrogation of the groom's family which had been named by Sharma's family, the police realised that the deceased photographer met this fate after he shot a footage of some hard-core criminals, including a notorious history-sheeter of Etmadpur, op
Read more