PROMISE & DELIVERY

STATUS OF COMMITMENTS MADE IN THE 2014 BJP MANIFESTO

FULFILLED

PROMISE Digitisation of archives

STATUS The National Cultural Audiovisual Archives project, under the Union ministry for culture, and implemented by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) has been certified as the world’s first Trusted Digital Repository. Over 15,750 artefacts in the National Museum have been digitised

FAILURE

PROMISE Promotion of Indian languages STATUS Apart from Hindi, other languages have failed to garner enough attention HITS

n E-ticketing service in over 100 monuments

n 100 most prominent monuments declared ‘adarsh smarak’ or ‘model monuments’ where ASI is in the process of providing and improving basic tourist amenities

n Seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with headquarters at Patiala, Nagpur, Udaipur, Allahabad, Kolkata, Dimapur and Thanjavur to protect, preserve, promote and popularise various forms of folk art and culture. Eight Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsavs (RSMs) also organised

n A culture mapping scheme under which artistes are “graded”— based on their performance—to equally distribute central funds across all regions

n 27 antiquities retrieved from foreign countries between 2014 and 2017

n Fund allocation to maintenance of ASI protected monuments and World Heritage Sites has gone up 78 per cent

MISSES

The Lok Sabha has passed the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites Remains (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which ensures that public works can take place within 100 metres of a protected monument—a practice forbidden under current law. Critics feel this will have adverse impact on conservation of monuments

SCAM ALERT

A case of misappropriation of Rs 51 lakh—through nonpayment of scholarship to 325 beneficiaries—in Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), an autonomous organisation under the ministry of culture, has been detected. Delhi Police is probing the matter.

OH TAJ!

According to a National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) suggestion, the government plans to limit the daily tourist inflow to Taj Mahal to 40,00050,000, allowing ticketholders to stay on Taj premises only for three hours. A high-level meeting of the environment and culture ministries, the state government and experts on June 3 in Agra will chalk out a plan to protect Taj from pollution CHALLENGE AHEAD PROTECT TAJ MAHAL FROM ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AND POLITICAL ASSAULT