Modi government’s Adopt a Heritage scheme to be revised

The Modi government’s Adopt a Heritage scheme, where corporate bodies are invited to adopt a heritage site for its maintenance and upkeep, will now be revised after several sites found it difficult with a paucity of takers in previous attempts. After working on revamping the scheme in the last few months, the ministry said that it will now be ready next month.

The scheme, which was earlier implemented by the tourism ministry in the last government, will be carried out by the culture ministry, and officials have held meetings with corporate bodies in the past few months. On the sights of the ministry are over 500 heritage sites, including Hampi, Purana Quila, Ajanta, Ellora, Mandu, Kangra Fort and Golconda Fort. All these sites will be heritage monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India.

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Officials said that apart from projection-mapping, light and sound shows will be introduced in these sites. Last week, union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged his counterpart in the culture ministry, G Kishen Reddy, to help find an adoptee of Odisha’s Kapileshwar Temple.

Officials said that a website will be launched for the scheme, and road shows and other activities will be carried out to publicise the scheme among people. A pilot of the revamped scheme was implemented at Delhi’s Red Fort at Delhi, which the ministry said, has shown results. A light and sound show, which was inaugurated by the home minister, has drawn sizable crowds, the ministry said.

The scheme has found little success in the past since it was introduced in 2017 – by late 2018, only 10 of the 93 monuments were ‘adopted’. State departments, too, found it difficult to engage corporate bodies. In UP, only five of the 21 sites advertised in 2021 and 2022, managed to find a corporate house.