Agra tourism body demands clarity in Taj policy

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

For ages the Taj Mahal has been considered to be a global tourism ambassador of India. After the Centre decided handover Delhi’s Red Fort to the Dalmiya Group for maintenance purportedly for Rs 25 crore, speculations are rife about the imminent takeover of the Taj Mahal by private players like GMR and ITC.

 
Angered by the government’s decision to hand over heritage monuments for ‘adoption’ under the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ scheme, the local tourism industry is demanding clarity on the Agra monuments. It seeks a full disclosure of any supposed agreement with private players regarding the Taj Mahal and other monuments of Agra.

 
Speaking to the media, Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber President Prahalad Agarwal said that this was not be the first time that the Centre had tried to palm off its maintenance responsibility to a corporate group.

 
In fact, the Tata Group and ONGC Ltd (ONGC) have already been handed over the maintenance and beautification of the Taj Mahal during the previous governments in 2001 and 2014, respectively. This was done under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.

 
However, Agarwal said, both these companies failed to uphold their part of the agreement primarily because Taj Mahal is not ‘Red Fort’. It is a special monument where every activity is overseen by the Supreme Court which forbids any changes in the monument that may alter its original structure.

« Back to Page