A Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended easing the restrictions on construction near the Centrally protected monuments, going from the existing blanket ban on building within 100 metres of the site to a framework of “least possible restrictions”.
The department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, in its report presented in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, recommended that the Culture Ministry review the restrictions imposed by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958. In its report, the panel found that there was no specific reasoning behind prohibiting all construction activity in the 100 metre radius of a monument and regulating it within 300 metres.
“…it does not seem logical to have restrictions on a uniform amount of area across the highly diverse types of monuments under the protection of the Central government,” the report stated.
The panel said the matter should be considered on a case-to-case basis.
“There is no denying the fact that there needs to be a mechanism for keeping a check on the construction activities in the vicinity of a historical monument but utmost care must be taken to ensure that doing so causes least possible disruption in the lives of people who have had been living in harmony with the monuments since decades,” the report said.
Calls for amendment
The panel also recommended a constitutional amendment to enable the Centre to enforce some protective provisions with regard to monuments and sites that are not under the Central or State governments’ protection. To allow the Archaeological Survey of India to act against encroachment of monuments, the committee said the AMASR Act should grant the ASI the power to seal the illegal construction till it could be demolished.
