Persons go missing. Valuables, watches, cellphones, pens go missing. Sometimes even coal block allocation files go missing. Now monuments have gone missing; the Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) admit to 35 lost and not found.



And it gets worse. The government has been caught lying to Parliament on this number. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has indicted the culture ministry and ASI for furnishing incorrect data to Parliament on the number of national monuments that are missing. The CAG report says that on more than one occasion the culture minister has told Parliament that 35 of its monuments have gone missing. When the CAG checked about 1,655 protected monuments and sites-comprising 45 per cent of the total-they found 92 monuments missing.





This is more than 2.5 times the number of its monuments have gone missing. When the CAG checked about 1,655 protected monuments and sites-comprising 45 per cent of the total-they found 92 monuments missing (see box).This is more than 2.5 times the number being provided by the culture ministry since 2006. Since the CAG verification covers about half the total number of monuments, the total figure would be much higher if the inspection covered all monuments.The CAG report has brought the boom down on the ASI for hiding facts, quoting instances where some monuments "missing" in Delhi from the 1970s have not even been listed by the ASI as such.The story of General Nicholson's statue, a protected monument near Kashmere Gate in the Capital at the time of Independence, is as good an example of the ASI's inertia as any. The statue was gifted by the government to Ireland in the 1960s, but the ASI has been unaware of the transfer till recently. Of course, the statue still features in the list of protected monuments.



Unaware



The CAG audit has found that the premier custodian of our heritage does not even know the number of monuments it is supposed to protect. It has been found that the ASI does not even possess notification documents for many of its monuments. This document is the legal basis of the boundary of a monument, and is the prime tool to beat back encroachments, the bane of common properties and public spaces in India.



The CAG audit also says that these valuable monuments across the country are sites of neglect, marred as they are by encroachments and unauthorised constructions. Once again, the auditor has caught the ASI sleeping, as it notes that in its inspection of 1,655 of centrally protected monuments there were encroachments in around 546 monuments as against 249 intimated by the ASI.



The nation's showpiece monuments-the Taj Mahal and Red Fort- are not better off, the report says. Red Fort in Delhi has poorly maintained gardens, and its water channels have yet to be made operational. An illegal mazaar and temple have come up inside Red Fort in recent years; prayers are being offered at both places. Similarly, only one of 24 unauthorised constructions near the Taj Mahal has been removed.



Poor repair



The CAG report details how some of the ASI's repair work has been poor. In one recent instance, chemicals and oil were poured on an Ashoka Panel by ASI officials in order to hide their bad replicas. Ironically enough, these replicas were being made for an exhibition in Delhi to celebrate 150 years of ASI.



With frequent cases of smuggled Indian antiquities appearing abroad, the report may make the policymakers in the Ministry of Culture really uncomfortable as it says that despite giving an assurance in Parliament in 1987, the culture ministry is yet to amend A statue of General Nicholson was gifted to Ireland in the 1960s but the ASI doesn't know. the Antiquities and Art Treasure Act 1972 to give it more teeth.



The report found 131 antiquities have been stolen from monuments and ASI sites and 37 antiquities from site museums till 2012. But after registering a FIR, the ASI did nothing more, the report says.



Better steps



The reports say that in similar situations, organisations worldwide take more effective steps, like checking catalogues at international auction houses, posting news of such theft on websites, posting information about theft in the International Art Loss Registry, sending photographs of stolen objects electronically to dealers and auction houses and scholars in the field.