JOIN USA Parliamentary Standing Committee has asked the government to consider raising a special force on the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Border Security Force (BSF) for protection of heritage sites and monuments.
The panel recommended establishment of a special Central force for protection of heritage sites and monuments in its report, tabled in Parliament recently, saying it could be utilised for sites protected by the Centre and states.
“The committee would like the ministry to consider the idea of having a Central force specially for protecting or guarding our cultural heritage sites and monuments on the lines of the CISF and BSF,” it stated.
The committee, headed by Trinamool Congress’s MP in the Rajya Sabha Kanwar Deep Singh, also suggested that the government should set up a special task force in states to remove encroachment from protected monuments in “communally sensitive areas”.
“The committee is unhappy to note that though the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) issued 1,950 demolition orders during the last 4 years, only 32 orders were executed,” it noted.
The panel also stressed on the need to develop greater co-ordination between the ASI, state governments and the local authorities in prevention and removal of encroachments at protected monuments.
The field offices of the ASI should pursue such cases of encroachment “persistently” with the district authorities on an “urgent basis” and chalk a way out in such cases, it added