Title - SC move to protect heritage - The Times of India

KOLKATA: While hearing a petition moved after the Visva Bharati theft case, the Supreme Court, on Friday, directed the Union ministry of culture and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to file affidavits on what steps they have taken to protect the country's valuable heritage.

The bench of Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Dipak Mishra was hearing a petition moved by environment activist Subhas Datta after the theft of Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel medallion from a museum on the Visva Bharati campus in 2004. In his petition, Datta had said there is no physical verification of artefacts at Indian museums such as the one at Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata. Neither is there a specialized force to deal with the theft of valuable artefacts from our museums, Datta had submitted.

"There is the Railway Protection Force ( RPF) to guard railway property, the Central Industrial Security Force ( CISF) to protect our industries and the Border Security Force (BSF) for our borders. There is also the Special Protection Group for dignitaries. However, there is no specialized force to protect our national treasures. Such a force need not be trained in the use of assault rifles but should possess adequate knowledge on the subject," Datta had told the court.

Datta had also suggested that physical verification of the artefacts be done once every year and the records maintained at a centralized office. The physical verification needs to be done by an external agency as there is a possibility of employees getting protection from their colleagues. In this way, the actual status will become clear, the activist had pointed out.

"We have seen that nearly 50 items are missing from the museum at Vishwa Bharati but officials aren't aware. At the same time, there have been notings made of missing artefacts that could be later traced to the museum. To avoid this, we require a centralized system. There are 60 museums across the country. The ASI is in charge of 44 of these. On Friday, the court wanted to know from the ASI and the Centre what steps they have taken to protect our heritage. The matter is expected to come up for hearing again on November 20," Datta said.