ASI ordinance: PM intervenes,panel to keep builders in check

Worried that the recent ordinance and the proposed law that empowers the Central government to regularise illegal and disputed structures and constructions....

Worried that the recent ordinance and the proposed law that empowers the Central government to regularise illegal and disputed structures and constructions that fall within the banned 100-metre radius of protected monuments could be viewed as a step by the government to come to the assistance of some powerful builders and VIPs,who own such properties,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has intervened in the matter.

According to sources,miffed with the hasty manner in which Ministry of Culture brought the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Amendment Validation Ordinance,2010,Singh last week summoned Law Minister M Veerappa Moily and asked him to ensure that there was no lacunae in the proposed Bill that will have to be introduced in this session of Parliament to turn the ordinance into an Act.

The Prime Ministers brief to Law Minister is to ensure that no VIP or the builder lobby is able to benefit from the proposed law,something that heritage experts and conservationists are already alleging. He wants nothing left to anybodys discretion, said a source.

The PM is also learnt to have constituted a committee headed by Moily and also comprising Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage INTACH Chairman S K Misra and Delhi University Dean of Colleges Nayanjot Lahiri to look into the issue.

When contacted,both Misra and Lahiri refused to say anything on the issue.

As first reported by The Indian Express,Ministry of Culture issued the ordinance on the plea that unless it was notified before January 29,work on crucial infrastructure for the Commonwealth Games as well as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation in protected areas like Purana Qila,Hauz Khas,Humayuns Tomb,Siri Fort,etc,would be stalled.

After seeking the nod of the Cabinet,the Culture Ministry got the ordinance issued and notified by the Union Law Ministry on January 23.

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Sources said no objection was raised initially as any delay could have impacted work on the CWG. But,after receiving inputs that among those who would benefit from the ordinance and any subsequent law would be big builders and some VIPs,the PM decided to step in.

The stated purpose behind issuing the ordinance was to negate an order of the Delhi High Court,which had declared all 171 permissions granted by the Archaeological Survey of India ASI to various parties to undertake construction activity within the 100-metre prohibited area around a protected monument as invalid.

What raised eyebrows was the fact that the move to issue the ordinance was in sharp contrast to the decision of the ASI not to accept a suggestion by the Delhi High Court in 2004 to consider existing ground realities and come up with monument-specific prohibited zones instead of insisting upon a uniform 100-metre radius. Not only the ASI did not accept the suggestion,it chose to appeal against the same in the Supreme Court.

Through the ordinance,the Culture Ministry and ASI have done what they had opposed earlier and even gone to the Supreme Court, said sources.