Ancient monuments amendment bill sent to select panel by RS

The Rajya Sabha today sent a bill to allow construction of public works within the 'prohibited area' of protected monuments to a select committee.

A 'prohibited area' is 100 metres around a protected monument.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goyal proposed in the House that the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill should be sent to the select committee, which was approved by the House.

The committee has been asked to submit its report on the bill by August 8.

The members of the select committee include Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Jaya Bachchan, K Ramesh, Madhusudan Mistry, Saroj Pandey, Sanjay Raut, S C Misra, Naresh Gujral and Kahkashan Perween.

As per the Bill, the relevant central government department, that seeks to carry out construction for public purposes in a prohibited area, should make an application to the competent authority.

It empowers the National Monuments Authority to consider an impact assessment of the proposed public works in a prohibited area, including its archaeological impact, visual impact and heritage impact.