Months after maintaining that the Government has decided to withdraw the nomination of Delhi as the UNESCO World Heritage City, Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on Wednesday claimed it had never done so but only sought for ‘postponing the nomination’.
In his reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Sharma said the Government has not withdrawn the nomination of “Delhi’s Imperial Capital Cities” to the UNESCO World Heritage list but has “only requested the UNESCO Secretariat to postpone the nomination.”
Further, he replied “yes” to a question on whether the Ministry was aware that out of the 220 UNESCO world
heritage cities not even one is in India.
Interestingly, on May 22 Sharma had said the Government has taken a decision to withdraw the nomination of Delhi as the UNESCO World Heritage City, in view of the restrictions in carrying out infrastructure works in the national Capital after the city comes into the heritage list.
The decision had drawn criticism from heritage lover who felt that the tag would have put the city on world tourist map as also ensured protection to its heritage component.
The UPA Government had sent the nomination to UNESCO in 2012 and the final dossier was prepared by INTACH which was sent to the world heritage agency last January. The two designated sites were the walled city of Shahjahanabad and the lutyen’s Bungalow Zone.