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Govt refuses
heritage status for Amritsar, cites rule book
WSN
Network
 NEW
DELHI: Indian Parliament has rejected a forceful demand for
declaring Amritsar a heritage city last Friday, as the government
said there was no legal provision to do so either in India or under
the UNESCO rules. It however did concede
Amritsar's
religious, historic and tourist significance. Minister of State for
Urban Development Saugata Roy made the remarks while responding to a
calling attention motion moved by BJP members Navjot Singh Sidhu and
Uday Singh.
The members had
sought conferring the status of heritage city on Amritsar by
shifting it from Category B to C grant pattern of the Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
Roy appealed to
the MPs and the Punjab government to submit proposals for the
development of the historic city and its sites, saying Rs 345 crore
was lying as balance with the Ministry for being spent for the
purpose.
Noting that the
Punjab government and Sidhu had written to the Prime Minister on the
issue, Minister of State for Planning V. Narayanasamy said there was
"no legal terminology" as "historic city" in relevant laws.
Even UNESCO
declared monuments, architecture, sculptures, paintings and cave
dwellings as heritage sites but no city has been declared as such,
he said, adding that despite Taj Mahal and Qutab Minar being
heritage sites, the cities where these were situated were not.
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Minister says Amritsar has already been automatically included
in the JNNURM category for grants, like Haridwar, Mathura,
Nanded, Porbandar, Gaya or Ajmer. |
Observing that
benefits of JNNURM would not come even if
Amritsar
was declared a heritage city, Narayanasamy said the Centre and state
governments have declared thousands of sites across the country as
historic.
His ministerial
colleague, Roy said Amritsar has already been automatically included
in the JNNURM category for grants, like Haridwar, Mathura, Nanded,
Porbandar, Gaya or Ajmer.
Earlier when
Sidhu raised the matter, he was supported by rival Congress MPs from
Punjab. The former cricketer, who represents
Amritsar,
said it was "a grave omission" that the city had not been
categorised as historic despite being the temporal seat of Sikh
religion.
On his part,
Sidhu said he would soon approach Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
request him to grant hertiage status to
Amritsar.
16
December 2009
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