Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 9: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Abdul Rashid Dar has issued notice to State and Union Government in a plea seeking protection and conservation of the archaeological site and remains at Burzhom in the outskirts of Srinagar.
Treating a communication by former IAS officer Muhammad Shafi Pandit as a Public Interest Litigation, the DB issued notice to the Government of India through the Director General Archaeological Survey of India and Jammu and Kashmir Government through the Director Archives and Archaeology & Museums seeking response by July 28.
Tahir Majid Shamsi, Assistant Solicitor General accepted notice for the Director General Archaeological Survey of India while as Senior Additional Advocate General BA Dar accepted notice on behalf of the Director, Archives, Archaeology & Museums.
The DB directed that a copy of Pandit’s communication should be made available to both the counsels who, it said, may file the status report within four weeks.
In his letter, Pandit, who is also Chairman of Civil Society Group of Concerned Citizens J&K, has said that Burzhom site has been protected under the Archaelogical Monuments Sites and Remains Act (AMSAR) and at the time of notification, 82 kanals of land was transferred to the Archaeological Survey of India.
As per the letter, the site was identified and excavated by a Yale-Cambridge expedition in 1935 and subsequently by TN Khanzanchi of the ASI in 1960. “These excavations revealed immense importance of the site and was therefore placed on the tentative list of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 2014.
The UNESCO, the letter said, describes the site as a unique comprehensive story teller of life between 3000 BCE to 1000 BCE. “The site, as per the UNESCO listing, acted as a bridge between Central Asia and beyond and the Gangetic plains and peninsular India”, the letter said, adding “the sports agencies have been organizing premier league matches under the patronage of State and district administration at the site in contravention of the Central Act and the rules guiding the protection of archeological sites.
Pandit apprised the court that he along with two avid activists of heritage preservation—Saifuddin Soz and Saleem Beg visited the site recently saying it was absolutely heartening to find that even the signages at the site had been damaged.
He called for taking immediate remedial action by district Srinagar administration by providing necessary support to the ASI for fencing and for stopping misuse of the site.
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