In what could be termed a gross violation of the Central heritage laws, the Bijapur district administration has unilaterally “denotified”' 43 Centrally Protected Monuments and more than 500 acres of prime land surrounding these monuments, and “transferred” their ownership from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to the Karnataka State Board of Wakfs (KSBW).
The district administration has also written a letter to the Assistant Director of Land Records, Bijapur, to delete the ASI’s name and update the property records in the name of the local Wakf committees. No one knows the source of the authority for such an act or the circumstances that led the district administration to “denotify” the monuments.
The Archaelogical Survey of India under the Union Ministry of Culture, and the lawful owner of the monuments too is in the dark.
The decision taken in 2005 during the tenure of Mohammed Mohsin as the Deputy Commissioner came to light through an Right to Information application filed by Deccan Herald.
Mohsin was also the administrator for the District Wakf Advisory Committee.
According to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASRA), only the Parliament has the authority to denotify protected monuments and change their ownership.
The process has to be set in motion on the recommendation of the Director General of ASI.
Besides, the Union government has to appoint an experts’ panel and seek public opinion before going ahead. Apparently, the district administration has no authority to interfere with the ownership of the monuments. The ‘largesse’ by the district administration has come as a godsent for the local Wakf Committes.
Some have even availed loan from financial institutions to construct commercial complexes on the premises of the 14th century historical monuments.
The State Wakf Department has sanctioned Rs 20 lakh to a Committee to take up construction of a commercial complex on the premises of Haji Hassan Mosque, one of the Centrally protected monuments situated in Bijapur .
Legally invalid
The ASI has claimed that all the 94 monuments in Bijapur are still under its control and has placed the 43 ‘denotified’ structures under the list of encroached monuments. It said the matter would be taken up the chief secretary to the government.
“Several monuments of national importance in Bijapur have already been encroached upon. The present move will put the survival of some more rare archaeological sites in jeopardy,” said hertiage activisit Dr H G Daddi and advocate Tulajaram.
Both have been fighting to protect the Adil Shahi monuments in the City.