The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has accused the Culture Ministry of presenting incorrect data in Parliament regarding the number of missing monuments. It also indicted the Ministry and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for gross negligence of monuments and valuable antiquities across the country.
The top auditor claimed that 92 monuments were found missing, 2.5 times more than the number given by the Ministry since 2006. In its report, a first of its kind on preservation and conservation of monuments and antiquities, which was tabled in Parliament on Friday, the auditor has come down heavily on the Ministry for its ‘inactive approach’ that has reduced the ASI to a ‘toothless organisation’.
Though the ASI admits that in as many as 955 monuments worshipping and prayers were being held illegally, ironically, due to bad documentation it did not have the exact details of those monuments where prayers/worships were being held prior to issue of notification, the report states. “Not only the negligence was visible, the inspection of selected 1655 (45 per cent) of the centrally protected monuments revealed that there were encroachments in around 546 monuments as against 249 intimated by the ASI,” says the report.
With frequent cases of smuggled Indian antiquities appearing abroad, the audit is likely to make the policymakers in the Ministry of Culture squirm as it notes that despite giving an assurance in Parliament in 1987, the Ministry is yet to amend the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act 1972 to give it more teeth. Also, visitor’s facilities such as drinking water, ramps etc were found to be deficient in up to 96 percent of the monuments physically inspected in audit.
These included some World Heritage sites as well, says the report. It points out that over 131 antiquities were stolen from monuments and ASI sites and 37 antiquities from Museums till 2012. But after registering an FIR with the police, no further action was taken in the cases.