NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh government’s vision document to protect Taj Mahal for the coming 100 years failed to pacify the Supreme Court which again pulled it up for preparing the report without consulting with Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) which is entrusted the task to look after the monument.

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta also raised question on why the report did not spell out the immediate steps to be taken to protect the monument and said that most of the recommendations pertained to long term measures to keep the ivory-white marble mausoleum. It directed the state to give details of short term measures to be taken to prevent any damage to the Unesco world heritage site by July 30.

It also pointed out that many ministries of Centre and UP government including pollution board filed a response in the case and asked the Centre to make one ministry as nodal agency which could be held responsible for any damage to Taj and which would monitor the implementation of vision document.

“Who is responsible for Taj Mahal. Is it UP government, Centre, tourism ministry or ASI? Somebody has to take responsibility of Taj. One of the authorities has to take charge of it,” the bench said and asked the attorney general K K Venugopal to brief the court on July 30 on who should be held accountable for managing the affairs for protection of the monument. It also asked the Centre to file the management plan submitted by government authorities before UNESCO.

The court also took strong exception to UP government for filling draft of vision document before it was finalised and set a deadline of August 28 to give final shape to the document. Facing criticism for not suggesting short term measures for the protection of the monument, the state government distanced itself from the report and told the bench that document was prepared by School of Planning and Architecture and the state had not given any input so far. Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta said that the report was filed to show state government’s bonafide that it was committed to protect Taj and taking steps.

The court also took District Magistrate and Taj Trapezium Zone(TTZ) authority to task and slammed them for “doing nothing” to curb the pollution level in Agra and its surrounding areas. TTZ chairman told the court that the authority was not able to carry out its duty because of shortage of staff.

“TTZ is a flop. It has not done anything since it was constituted in 1996. You say that you are not able to do anything as you do not have staff. Is it the job of court to conduct recruitment for your staff. What is going on. This is nothing but tamasha,” the bench said.

Taj Trapezium Zone(TTZ) - a 10,400 sq.km trapezium-shaped area covering the five districts of the Agra region. The TTZ comprises over 40 protected monuments including three World Heritage Sites — the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.

