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Chandigarh heritage conservation panel ‘has no basis in law,' says MP Manish Tewari, citing Culture Ministry
Congress MP Manish Tewari has questioned the legal authority of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee (CHCC), saying that a recent reply in Parliament confirms it is 'purely an administrative fiction created by an executive order' and not backed by any statutory enactment.
Responding to his unstarred question in Lok Sabha on Monday, the Ministry of Culture stated that the CHCC was set up by the Chandigarh Administration through a notification on April 20, 2012, after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved its creation in response to an Expert Heritage Committee report. Chandigarh, the reply clarified, is not a declared heritage city, though 13 heritage zones in Sectors 1 to 30 have been identified for their historical and architectural significance, along with heritage buildings graded in three categories.
Tewari said the answer makes it 'evident' that the committee was not constituted under any law like the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, or the Punjab Act of 1964. 'It has no basis in law and has not been constituted pursuant to any parliamentary enactment,' he asserted.
The reply also cited a Supreme Court judgment which, it said, strengthened the CHCC's legal status for approving matters like re-densification of government housing pockets in Phase I and framing of heritage-related rules. Tewari, however, pointed out that the answer did not specify which judgment was being referred to.
According to the MP, even the Expert Heritage Committee's report recognised no heritage site beyond Sector 30. 'From Sector 30 onwards there is nothing that is heritage…the remit must be circumscribed to the conservation of the 13 heritage zones,' he said, adding that the CHCC 'cannot become the final arbiter of Chandigarh's progress and development.'
Since its inception, the committee has held 25 meetings and reviewed projects ranging from the UNESCO-listed Capitol Complex to masterplans of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) and Panjab University, and restoration of the Le Corbusier Centre.
Tewari maintained that while conservation is important, the committee's jurisdiction should be 'clearly defined and legally sound.'
