New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday stressed the need for protecting historical monuments from the pressures of urbanisation and population growth and called for evolving a more holistic understanding of conservation that combines preservation efforts with socio-economic needs of the people.
Speaking at a function to mark the 150th year of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the Prime Minister asked the Culture Ministry and ASI to seek greater integration of preservation and conservation efforts in cities with public policies and schemes for urban renewal.
“The pressures of urbanisation and population growth are now threatening our historic monuments everywhere in the country. Unless we act quickly to improve the manner in which we look after these treasures, we will have to answer to the future generations,” he said.
Pointing out that the country owed much of understanding of pre-modern past to the extensive exploratory works, excavations and careful documentation by the ASI, the Prime Minister said the Harappan Civilisation would have remained unknown but for the extensive work done by this organisation.
The history of early farming communities in India, the introduction of iron, the first and second phases of ancient urbanisation and India’s linkages with the western and eastern world in ancient and medieval times were only some of the historical narratives that are inextricably linked with the history of the ASI.
The Prime Minister said successful conservation efforts in the past had incorporated local area development through employment generation, boosting local crafts and arts, building of infrastructure, environmental conservation and landscaping.
He said the ASI is a great national enterprise in which different arms of the government should partner with civil society and local communities.
“We should spare no resources and no effort to bring our systems on par with the best in the world. This will of course require imagination and administrative resolve,” he added.
The Prime Minister said his government had placed a lot of emphasis on the all round revitalisation of the ASI.
He expressed the government’s commitment to giving the maximum professional autonomy to the ASI and said the government had introduced rules and procedures to help bring about greater professionalism in the organisation. (UNI)