Central funds for conservation and preservation of monuments in Odisha reduced by over 50% in last five years

BHUBANESWAR: The allocation of Central funds for the conservation and preservation of monuments of national importance in Odisha has reduced from Rs 8.65 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 3.63 crore in 2021.
Union minister for culture, tourism, and development of North Eastern Region of India G Kishan Reddy said this in Lok Sabha while replying to the answer of BJP MP Sangeeta Singh Deo on Monday.
Singh Deo asked the minister to give details of funds allocated and expenditure incurred on conservation, restoration, scientific preservation and environmental development, development of surroundings including beautification on each protected monument in Odisha during the last five years.
Surprisingly, the funds have reduced by more than 50% in the last five years.
In 2016-17, while the Centre had allocated Rs 8.65 crore, the funding had dropped to Rs 6.89 crore in 2017-18, Rs 590 crore in 2018-19, Rs 5.30 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 3.63 crore in 2020-21, Reddy said in his reply.
He further added that, conservation, preservation and environmental development work of centrally-protected monuments in Odisha is a continuous process taken up as per the Annual Conservation Plan (ACP) drawn by the field office, and same is attended by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as per the availability of resources and priority.
The ASI has been providing basic facilities and amenities like drinking water, toilet, facilities for physically challenged, pathways, cultural notice boards/signage, parking, cloak rooms at the sites and monuments as per need, priority, and availability of resources, he said.
Conservationists said the situation of conservation and preservation in the state is in precarious condition. “Except for Puri and Konark, the conservation agencies hardly do any conservation and restoration work in the state. Even in these two places there are more plans and few implementations. The sheer number of monuments Odisha has, there is a need for proper listing and documentation of monuments as well as restoration works need to be taken up. With these peanuts amount of funds things will go bad to worse. There is also a need for use of proper conservation techniques too,” said Anil Dhir, conservationist and convenor of INTACH.
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