Taj Mahal

The apex court had on May 1 expressed concern over the changing colour of the Taj Mahal apparently due to pollution and rapped the government saying “perhaps you don’t care”.

Observing that the monument had earlier turned yellow and was now going brownish and greenish in colour, the apex court had pulled up the authorities for not taking appropriate steps to preserve and protect it.

It had asked the Centre to take the assistance of experts from India and abroad to first assess the damage and take steps to restore the 17th century white marble mausoleum. While perusing the recent pictures, shown by petitioner and environmentalist MC Mehta, the bench had observed, “this is now becoming the eighth wonder of the world”.

The petitioner had said the authorities have not complied with the apex court’s directions due to which the condition of the monument has become “horrible”. He had said that besides change in its colour, there were patches on the marbles and recently a minaret had also fallen down. The bench had observed that heads of countries and several dignitaries, including the Canadian Prime Minister, visiting India go to see the Taj and the court assumes that the authorities would want to preserve it.

The petitioner had told the bench that Taj Mahal was in “shambles”, Yamuna water in Agra has finished, the apex court orders were being flouted and encroachments and even industries have come up there.

He had also raked up the issue of security in Taj Mahal and said that CCTV cameras were not working and alleged that the “Government of India and the state government was not doing anything except making money from the monument”.

In March this year, the apex court had asked Uttar Pradesh government to place before it a draft of vision document on protection and preservation of the Taj and the environment in the Taj Trapezium Zone, which 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 in Rajasthan. August.

The Supreme Court had earlier termed as very unfortunate the killing of a woman officer, who was supervising demolition of an unauthorised construction, allegedly by a Kasauli hotel owner saying it was due to the “non-implementation” of law.

Assistant Town and Country Planner Shail Bala Sharma had on May 1 gone to supervise the demolition of unauthorised construction at Kasauli’s Narayani Guest House where its owner Vijay Singh had allegedly shot at her. She later succumbed to injuries, while another government official accompanying her had sustained serious injuries.

The apex court had pulled up the Himachal Pradesh government and said it cannot “encourage” people who break the law and carry out illegal constructions while asking it to ensure implementation of the law on illegal constructions.

Terming the Kasauli incident as a “huge problem” for the future, the apex court had asked the state government to apprise it about the status of probe in the case and the steps taken to ensure that no unauthorised constructions were carried out in the entire state.

The bench had also directed the counsel representing Himachal Pradesh to inform it about the status of implementation of the court’s order on demolition of unauthorised constructions in 13 hotels at Kasauli.

“What has been brought to our notice is that there were illegal constructions in Kasauli. We do not know if illegal constructions are going on in other places in the state. If people will start taking law in their own hands and say we will construct illegally and when the people will come to seal and close it on court’s order, we will shoot them dead, then who will go to seal it,” the bench had said.

The state’s counsel, while assuring the court that they would look into this aspect, had said four teams were set up to carry out demolition drive as per the court’s order and the team, of which the deceased was also a part, had 14 police officials. The bench was also informed that the accused had taken the property in his mother’s name.

The apex court, which had taken cognisance on its own on the firing incident, had on April 17 asked the state to demolish unauthorised structures in 13 hotels and guest houses in Kasauli and Dharampur areas of Solan.