Historians and archaeologists have expressed concern over amendments proposed to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (1958)
they feel it will have disastrous consequences for the monuments.
The Act, which originally instituted conservation measures and banned construction activities near protected monuments, is now sought to be amended so that public works could be allowed within the 100 m prohibited zone.
The Lok Sabha passed the amendments to the Act on January 3.
But the Bill is yet to be cleared by the Rajya Sabha.
Why is it so?
The pressure to bring in this amendment came when the ASI declined permission for a six-lane highway to come up on the Delhi-Kanpur highway near Akbar’s tomb in Sikandra, Uttar Pradesh.
In 2013, after a CAG report raised an alarm that 92 historical monuments had gone “missing” due to development activities around them, the ASI started a ground survey to verify them, and found that 21 had indeed become untraceable.
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