From CK Nayak
New Delhi: The historic stone bridge over Um-Nyakaneth in Jaintia Hills, one of Meghalaya’s ancient and also most neglected archaeological wonders, has been adopted by the Ministry of Tourism under Campaign Clean India for its upkeep and development.
The Ministry has facilitated the adoption of ten important Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) monuments including the stone bridge by Institutes of Hotel Management (IHM) and Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management under Campaign Clean India, an official statement said here on Saturday.
The bridge, built several centuries ago as a highway for the royal Jaintia entourage for their travel from their capital in Jaintiapur (now in Bangladesh) to their summer capital in Nartiang, Jaintia Hills, is situated between Jarain and Syndai.
The Ministry will blend of persuasion, education, training, demonstration and sensitization of all segments of society for cleanliness of the monument. The objective eventually will be to ensure that the cleanliness and environmental hygiene, specific to the identified destinations, are truly world class and that they serve as models to be replicated elsewhere.
The Ministry also has launched a scheme of awareness for Cleanliness through Facilitators like NGOs/schools/colleges and adopters (PSUs), corporate houses, industries to certain selected tourist destinations under Campaign Clean India. The scheme will enable schools and non-profit organisations to adopt, voluntarily, certain indicated destinations.
One important aspect of the scheme is that it necessitate an assessment of the performance by an independent agency namely Quality Council of India. Their assessment will also be the basis of awards to the better performing schools, NGOs and adopters.
The bridges in Jaintia Hills were first described by JH Hutton in 1925, during his extensive travel in the Northeast as the then Deputy Commissioner.
Hutton described the bridge as: “Very remarkable monuments (and) obviously been too long neglected…” Hutton “strongly recommend(ed)” that these bridges “be declared protected monuments”.
There are two other similar monolithic bridges in Jaintia Hills. All built by the Jaintia rulers. These ancient architects were built with huge granite blocks and placed over similar blocks to make strong bridges over rivers. Apart from the bridges, temples, royal bathing ghats and other archaeological monuments built by the Jaintia rulers, now lie in ruins strewn in Syndai.