Does J&K really mean to preserve its rich and valuable cultural manifestations called heritage fund? We have grave doubts. In the first place, the urge and sensitivity of preserving heritage stems from love of the land and pride in being its citizen. But when the homeland is to be defamed and desolated on the instigation of extraneous elements, culture and heritage lose their significance for the unfortunate community. Great nations of the world evince keen interest in preserving heritage for the posterity because a nation feels proud to be known as having great past.
Jammu and Kashmir State, which factually comprises three regions, is said to be one of the rich repositories of heritage in the country. That does us pride. However, when we look into the mind of our policy planners, we do not find much to be really proud about. All the three regions are gifted of rich heritage. Perhaps Ladakh would be at the top of this list. How Ladakhis have preserved manifestations of their culture and heritage is something we all can feel glorified. Kashmir valley, too, is prominently rich in heritage being the repository of prehistoric sites and finds like Burzahom and Gofkral; heritage of three thousand years of Hindu rule in the shape of the ruins of temples, hospices, ashrams, forts, shrines, setus (embankments), gardens, caves and tunnels etc; of bridges, forts, tombs, graveyards, pleasure gardens, roads etc of the period of Sultans and Mughals, and likewise rich heritage of Dogra rulers in Jammu region in the shape of innumerable temples and shrines, canals springs, fresco, statues, paintings fortresses, bridges, culverts and causeways, sarais and cantonments. All this rightly makes our State a premier state in the country in the context of heritage and cultural wealth.
Heritage needs to be protected and preserved otherwise due to vagaries of weather and ec-centricities of human nature it can perish. For preservation and protection, we need to have institutional mechanism and in the State we have not only the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums but also Jammu and Kashmir Ancient Monuments Preservation (Amendment) Act, 2010. It means that we have the constitutional guarantee of preserving our heritage and we have the instrument which is assigned the duty of doing the job. Preservation is an expensive activity because constant care and repair are required and these entail expenditures. The State Government has allocated just one crore rupees for the preservation of heritage for the financial year 2016-17. It is peanuts. It is to mock at the department by supposing that it can maintain the heritage wealth of all the three regions of the State with a paltry sum of one crore rupees. Though, the Act is there and it is a binding on the Government to ensure conserving the heritage but this Act has remained confined to paper only and on the ground the story is something different. In our State restoration and conservation of monuments is handled by the Department of Archives and Archaeology and it has the mandate of conducting regular survey, identification and excavation of archaeological sites in order to include these sites/monuments in the list of State Protected Monuments.
The monuments or sites are declared State Protected Monuments as per the provisions of the Act. Unfortunately, the department cannot perform these duties effectively for want of funds. As per data of Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums there are a total of 51 State Protected Monuments in the form of rock sculptures, rock carving, ancient sites, forts, tombs and temples. For the proper conservation that too in a time bound manner allocation of one crore rupees is nothing more than peanuts, It is almost tantamount to disregarding the very purpose of the Act. Though, the Finance Minister had once said in the Assembly that five crore rupees would be allocated for the department for State Protected Monuments but the commitment boiled down to one crore only. Keeping in mind the fact that our nation attaches great importance to culture and heritage, we would appreciate if the Government revives the budgetary allocation and become more realistic by revising it upwards to adequate quantum of fund that would be sufficient for the experts of the department to carry forward their mandate.
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