Joshi set to revamp ASI

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27: Pushed into action by an unhappy staff, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Murli Manohar Joshi is planning to...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27: Pushed into action by an unhappy staff, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Murli Manohar Joshi is planning to appoint a review committee to examine the functioning of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The committee, the first after a 1983 expert panel headed by Ram Niwas Mirdha, will place special emphasis on cadre review.

But even as a revamp of ASI is on the anvil, the Planning Commission is going slow on the organisation’s request for 5,000 additional monument attendants for better care, because of the additional expense involved. The Planning Commission has provided four options instead: the ASI could employ private security agencies, give the charge of monument security to ex-servicemen’s cooperatives, allow rural/urban local bodies to maintain the monuments, or even give the monuments to private individuals with familial attachment to a particular heritage spot.

The Planning Commission has also kept on hold the demand from ASI to provide Rs 1.5 crore for a newmuseum at Khajuraho. But what has been on hold for longer is the return of a professional as Director-General of ASI. In fact, there has been no D-G from within since M C Joshi retired in 1993. IAS officer and Additional D-G (Administration) Achala Moulik was given concurrent charge as D-G after that. In 1994, the Secretary, Culture, took over as D-G, and two years later in August 1996, Ajai Shankar became D-G. But recruitment rules, as of now, don’t allow a professional from within to become D-G, primarily because none has the requisite seniority. The post of Additional D-G (Archaeology) has been vacant since July 31, 1990, and the post of Joint D-G has been vacant since 1994. Six posts of directors were regularised only as late as 1998. A 15-member sub-committee of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on HRD is also preparing a report on the preservation of ASI monuments and the organisation’s wherewithal to tackle the nation’s heritage.

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Sources in the Ministry say this is part of their drive to return toprofessionals all institutions under the Department of Culture. The next stop: the National Gallery of Modern Art, where Indian Revenue Service officer Anjali Sen’s term is set to end next month.

As part of this, they cite the appointment of museologist R D Choudhary as Director, National Museum, and that of Bhupen Hazarika as Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.