NEW DELHI, Sept 25:
The Supreme Court todayextended till November 15 thetime for Uttar PradeshGovernment to come out with avision document on protectingthe Taj Mahal, and asked it toconsider declaring a portion ofthe area surrounding the monu-ment as 'heritage'.
A bench of Justices Madan BLokur, S Abdul Nazeer andDeepak Gupta was informed bythe State Government thatDelhi-based School of Planningand Architecture, which ispreparing the vision document,has sought for extension of timetill November 15 to finalise it.
Additional Solicitor General(ASG) Tushar Mehta, who wasappearing for the StateGovernment, told the court that"in-principle" there cannot beany objection in declaring entireAgra as a heritage city but thatwould have several ramifica-tions.
He said it would be diffi-cult to declare entire Agra aheritage city but some portionof it could be brought withinits ambit covering sites like TajMahal, Fatehpur Sikri andAgra Fort.
"If it is difficult for entirecity of Agra then some area sur-rounding the Taj Mahal can bedeclared as heritage," the benchtold Mehta.
The ASG said the state gov-ernment has sought the assis-tance of Ahmedabad-basedCentre for EnvironmentalPlanning and Technology onthis issue and asked it to preparea report on it.
Advocate Aishwarya Bhati,who was also representing thestate, told the bench that even inAhmedabad, the entire city wasnot declared as heritage.
She said an area of around5.5 km in Ahmedabad wasdeclared as heritage.
Besides seeking extension oftime for the vision document,Bhati told the bench that Schoolof Planning and Architecturehas asked for three additionalexperts from the field of waterresources, air pollution and a
hydrologist to prepare the paper.She suggested the names of
institutes from where theseexperts could be called to assistthe school in the work.
The bench allowed therequest and asked the person in-charge of these three institutesto appoint an expert to assist inthe process of preparing visiondocument.
The ASG said that a commu-nication will be sent to theAhmedabad-based institute sothat a final decision on declaringportion of Agra city as heritagecould be taken soon.
The bench has posted thematter for hearing on November29.
During the hearing, thebench, while referring tomedia reports, asked as towhether Chandni Chowk inDelhi would be declared asheritage.
The State had earlier told thecourt that they would come outwith vision document byOctober 15.
The Centre had earlier toldthe court that it had communi-cated to the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment to send a proposal todeclare Agra a 'heritage city'.
It had also said that theArchaeological Survey of India(ASI) was in the process ofpreparing a heritage plan for theTaj Mahal which would be filedwith the UNESCO in threemonths.
The Apex Court had earlierasked the authorities to take alarger perspective on issues ofpollution and green cover whilepreparing a vision document,saying that there will be no "sec-ond chance" to preserve the TajMahal.
The top court, while observingthat the Taj Mahal would "ofcourse be the centre piece" of thematters to be considered, had saidthat other issues like vehiculartraffic, pollution from the indus-tries operating in the TajTrapezium Zone (TTZ) and thewater level of the Yamuna river,should also be looked into while
preparing the vision document.The TTZ is an area of about
10,400 sq km spread over thedistricts of Agra, Firozabad,Mathura, Hathras and Etah inUttar Pradesh and the Bharatpurdistrict of Rajasthan.
Environmentalist M CMehta, the petitioner in the caserelating to the protection of TajMahal, had told the court thatgreen cover in the area hasreduced and there wereencroachments in and outsidethe Yamuna flood plains there.
He had referred to ApexCourt's 1996 order in the caseand said several industries havecome up in the area, with manyof them operating beyond theircapacity.
The top court, which hasbeen monitoring development inthe TTZ area to protect the Taj,had earlier slammed the Centre,Uttar Pradesh Government andTTZ authority for their failure torestore the pristine glory of theTaj Mahal. (PTI)
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Taj Mahal protection: SC gives UPtime till Nov 15 for vision document
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