‘Constitute a private-public committee for the Taj’

1. ONE WAY to preserve the Taj Mahal is to constitute a private-public committee of six to eight people, which will work solely for the preservation of the monument. The committee can comprise retired government officials, businessmen and academicians. Measurable key performance indicators or KPI milestones can be set so as to track the progress of the work done by this committee. —Ankita Mehrotra, mehrotraankita@gmail.com 2. NO NEW thermal plant should be allowed in the Taj Trapezium Zone. A thermal power project of 1,200 mega watts is coming up in the district and this can cause further damage to the Taj. india today can press for a study on its adverse impact on the Taj so that it is converted into a gas-based power plant. This issue should also be brought to the notice of the Supreme Court. —Basant Kumar Sharma, Agra 3. HAND OVER the Taj Mahal to an independent authority, headed by a Supreme Court judge. —Dr. Satish Khandelwal, satishkortho@gmail.com 4. THE PROBLEM then as now is the absence of a system that could bring competing/ conflicting interests together toward a management system that comprehends what heritage means and what is at stake. The National Institute of Design (NID) had worked nearby, in the Brajbhoomi and Bharatpur areas, and suggested that the Mathura-Brajbhoomi-BharatpurFatehpur Sikri-Taj-Agra region be made a national ‘cultural park’. These several environmental and cultural ecologies were so closely interlinked that an overview was needed that would respect the heritage, livelihood and carrying capacity as a region, bringing these together so that geography and culture could emerge as a national treasure. But our arguments fell on deaf ears. Your ‘Save The Taj’ campaign revives those memories as well as the urgency of the situation today. May it receive the attention and support it so richly deserves. —Ashoke Chatterjee, Ahmedabad University 5. UNLESS THE central and state governments substantially increase their annual budget for the Taj Mahal, the monument cannot be saved. According to the india today report, the total expenditure on the Taj Mahal is just 8 per cent of the revenue earned from the sale of tickets. If the Taj is handed over to a private agency, it will only be interested in making profits rather than saving the monument. —M. Riaz Hasan, United Kingdom 6. AN UNBREAKABLE glass wall should be constructed around the Taj to prevent damage from pollution. —R. Vasu, Coimbatore 7. ACTIVISTS OF the area have formulated a vision document. Some of the salient features of the document are: Uninterrupted flow of water in the Yamuna round the year along with restoration of water bodies in the region; effective ban not only on polluting industries but also on vehicles; developing greenery; heritage city status for Agra; deurbanising the Taj Trapezium Zone with a complete ban on highrise structures in the vicinity; scrapping leather park proposals; geometric redesigning of important crossings and encouraging bicycleriding with marked lanes. —Brij Khandelwal, Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, Agra