As many as 160 proposals for excavation and exploration across the country have been put on hold as Union Culture Minister Mahesh Verma is yet to nominate three of the five members of the Standing Committee that gives approval for such projects.
With the file gathering dust in his office for more than a month now, researchers and officials at the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) are worried as they feel that the digging season which is between November and March would be curtailed in the absence of any timely decision. They also felt that the delay would result in lapse of the fund for the projects which ultimately will have to be shelved or shifted to the next year.
Sources in the ASI said that earlier it was Sharma’s predecessor Shripad Naik who failed to take a decision to appoint the members and ensure smooth rolling out of the excavation projects on the ground. Headed by the ASI DG, the five-member SCEE aims “to advise on the promotion of archeological pursuance and also advise DG on matters for proposals for exploration and excavation”.
“The committee members are chosen by the Centre Advisory Board of Archaeology (CABA), which is made up of over 100 experts across India. While two names have been cleared the decision on three other names is awaited. It is the Minister who has to give green signal for the names selected by the CABA,” the sources added.
The committee members are from the ASI and heads of archaeology departments in various universities and States. Out of the 160 projects four of them from the ASI office. “The ASI has forwarded four major projects for waiting approval from the panel. These are at Rukmanisthan in Nalanda (Bihar), Surbari in Puri (Odisha), Bharot in Bharuich (Gujarat) and Binjore in Ganganagar (Rajasthan),” the sources said.