New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Centre, the Uttar Pradesh government and Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) authority for their failure to restore the pristine glory of Taj Mahal and asked what would happen if UNESCO withdraws the world heritage site tag of the iconic monument.
The apex court came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh government for filing a draft report of the vision document on protection of the Taj Mahal and observed it was "surprising" that the Archeological Survey of India (ASI), which was responsible for preservation of the ivory white marble mausoleum, was not even consulted in the process.
A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta also wondered as to how 1,167 polluting industries were operating in the TTZ area and said that the TTZ authority, which was set up following an apex court order of 1996, was a "flop" and it appeared that a 'tamasha' (drama) was going on in the matter.
TTZ is an area of about 10,400 sq km spread over the districts of Agra, Firozabad, Mathura, Hathras and Etah in Uttar Pradesh and Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.
"The UNESCO's world heritage centre is in Paris. Have you been filing management plan (of Taj Mahal) before the world heritage centre of UNESCO? This is not being filed. What will happen if the UNESCO says that we will withdraw the world heritage tag of Taj Mahal," the bench asked Attorney General K K Venugopal.
Responding to it, Venugopal said, "It will be great, great embarrassment for the country" and "we cannot afford to get it (Taj Mahal) removed from the list of UNESCO's world heritage site".
The bench, while making it clear that somebody has to take responsibility for protection of the Taj Mahal, asked the Attorney General to "categorically and unequivocally" apprise the court by July 30 as to which departments of the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government would be responsible for maintenance and protection of TTZ.
It also directed the authorities to inform it by July 30 about the short term measures which were essential and needed to be acted upon immediately
for protection of Taj Mahal and TTZ.