Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 18: The 3rd meeting of J&K Heritage Conservation & Preservation Authority was held under the chairmanship of Minister for Housing, Horticulture & Culture, Raman Bhalla, to review the progress on restoration work being done on various heritage sites across the State.
Commissioner/Secretary Tourism and Culture, Atal Dulloo, Commissioner/ Secretary R&B, Tanveer Jehan, Secretary JKAACL Khalid Bashir Ahmed, Consultant Tourism and Culture, K. A Qadri, Special Secretary PWD, Special Secretary Revenue, Deputy Director Archives besides other senior officers of Tourism, Culture, Planning, Revenue, Industries, Housing, Law, Agriculture Department attended the meeting.
Bhalla informed the meeting that the Government has earmarked corpus fund of Rs. 50 crore for meeting the expenditure on conservation and preservation of rich heritage assets of the State, against which Rs. 2 crore stands released, which would be invested as long and short term measures for the purpose.
Bhalla said that initially three heritage sites one each in Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh regions would be taken up for conservation by the authority. In this regard, he directed concerned to prepare conservation plans for these sites.
The Minister stressed upon the concerned authorities to take all necessary steps for making the authority more vibrant and result oriented. He said Jammu and Kashmir is proud to have 5000 years of living traditions with enormous number of monuments, heritage places, archeology sites and their preservation is on focused attention of the Government.
Bhalla said that the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act was also updated after a gap of 19 years and rules and regulation for both the Acts are in force for the purpose.
The Minister emphasized speedy start of work on revival of the pristine glory of Zorawar Singh Palace Vijaypur Reasi, Chamba Rock Cut Sculpture Kartsaye Kargil, Poonch House Talab Tilloo Jammu, Heritage Building SPS College Srinagar. He said the detailed reports on these projects have been approved for early start of work.
Bhalla said 27 more heritage sites of Jammu, Kashmir & Ladakh region have been identified to be taken for preservation and listing under J&K Heritage Conservation & Preservation Act-2010. He impressed upon the officers for speedy identification, documentation and listing of more Heritage Places and items as per the format devised under the Act.
The meeting was informed that 651 monuments and heritage places in the State have been identified by the Archives Department during 2009 and it was decided that available data would be further upgraded as per the comprehensive format devised by the authority.
The meeting after thorough discussion approved the Draft Heritage Regulations of the Authority which will be examined by Law Department for its notification.
It was informed that conservation work on number of monuments has been completed while work on various such projects including historic Bahu Fort Jammu, Hari Parbat Fort Srinagar, Mughal Saria Chingus Rajouri, Ancient Temple & Spring at Anantnag, Samba Fort Samba, Bhim Garh Fort Reasi etc is in progress.
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