'Agra not qualified to be world heritage city'

New Delhi, Aug 28: The Centre today told the Supreme Court that the city of Agra in Uttar Pradesh does not qualify to be declared a world heritage city.

Solicitor General G E Vahanvati today told the court that in view of its unplanned growth, Agra did not qualify for the status of world heritage city and it also did not fulfil the conditions laid down by the world heritage Committee.

Bench comprising Justices S B Sinha, S H Kapadia and D K Jain directed the authorities including the Commissioner of Agra division, Vice Chairman of Agra Development Authority and senior officials of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to hold a meeting on September 2 to discuss the issue of allotment of land for barricading the area around Taj Mahal and also to shift the facilitation centre and the ticketing counter beyond 500 m of the monument.

The court also directed the authorities to place the details of discussion before this court so that appropriate directions may be issued for regulating the entry of visitors as well as to set a time frame for visiting the historical monument. There are about 225 heritage structures in Agra.

The court, while adjourning the hearing till September 26, also directed the state of UP to place on record the contingency plan for the protection and security of Taj.

Three monuments namely Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort have already been declared as world heritage monuments.

The court, however, directed a writ petition, seeking CBI inquiry into the alleged corruption in awarding the contracts to the public sector undertakings who in turn get the work done from contractors and to be placed before the Chief Justice of India, for being alloted to some other bench as the petition filed by Advocate Ajay Agarwal was not connected with the matter being heard by this bench.

UNI