TS seeks rechristening of ASI, wants ‘heritage’ tag included

The TS government wants to hold the seminar on heritage an annual event, and hold it for three days with one day being dedicated to visiting historic monuments and sites.

The government has widened the scope of the archaeology department by calling it Heritage Telangana. Tourism secretary Burra Venkatesham said a gazette notification had been made to bring more streams like culture, dance and art under its ambit. The archaeology wing was earlier confined to studying and surveying monuments and structures, he said.

Former chief secretary and government adviser Dr Rajiv Sharma said Telangana state was the first in the country to revisit the functioning of the archaeology department. The state government has appealed to the Centre to rechristen the Archeological Survey of India as Heritage India.

“The name was fine until the survey was completed to identify historical monuments and structures. The survey has been completed long ago, but the wording is still being continued and it looks out of place. Hence, the TS government broadened the scope by preferring the word ‘heritage,’” he said.

Dr Sharma’s colleague B.V. Papa Rao, elaborating on the about concept of the international seminar on TS heritage, recalled that it took almost a decade to turn the event into reality. “With the formation of Telangana state and TRS government according importance to bringing the forgotten history and heritage of Telangana into limelight, our efforts have paid off,” he said.