Supreme Court to UP government: File vision document for preservation of Taj Mahal within four weeks

Supreme Court on Wednesday directed Uttar Pradesh government to submit a vision document for protection and preservation of Taj Mahal in Agra within four weeks, saying it was difficult to proceed in matter without it.

A bench comprising justices S A Bobde and S K Kaul also asked Centre to place before it in eight weeks time a report on declaring Agra a herit city.

vision document is being prepared by Delhi School of Planning and Architecture for UP government.

On September 25, 2018, apex court had extended till vember 15 time for Uttar Pradesh government to come out with vision document on protecting 17th-century monument and had asked it to consider declaring a portion of area surrounding it as 'herit'.

But as state government did t file vision document, apex court on Wednesday said it was difficult to proceed in matter and granted it four weeks to complete it.

Read: Postman Who Built Mini Taj Mahal For His Wife Dies, To Be Buried Inside Monument

Earlier, government had quoted Archaeological Survey of India (ASI):

"Pollutants from various sources have been superficially depositing on marble surface of Taj Mahal as particulate matters and due to scattering of light by se particles, marble surface of Taj Mahal appears to have changed in colour".

This was in response to questions in Lok Sabha as to wher marble of world famous Taj Mahal is getting discoloured due to air pollution.

Minister of State in Ministry of Environment Mahesh Sharma, while replying to questions on Friday, had said that ASI has formulated scientific cleaning and conservation plan to protect surface of Taj Mahal from deposited pollutants.

Supreme Court had in May expressed concern over change of colour of Mughal-era world famous monument and asked government what it was doing about it.  apex court suggested that Centre take assistance of experts from India and abroad to first assess dam and n take steps to restore historic monument.

“We don’t kw wher you have or perhaps don’t have expertise. Even if you have expertise, you are t utilising it. Or perhaps you don’t care,” a bench comprising Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said. “Perhaps we need some expert organisation from outside India unless re is a decision that Taj has to go,” bench said sarcastically, adding, “you can get experts from India as well as from outside.”

(With inputs from ncies)