Rajya Sabha Secretariat seeks comments of Culture Ministry

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 29

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat, while taking note of a petition filed by Ajay Jagga, member of UT’s Heritage Items Protection Cell (HIPC), has requested the views of the Ministry of Culture on the issue of ‘auctioning Chandigarh’s heritage items’.

In a communication sent to Jagga on December 21, the undersecretary wrote that Culture Ministry’s comments on the issues raised in the petition may be furnished to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat “latest by December 31, 2021, to facilitate the view being taken on the admissibility or otherwise of the petition”.

Earlier in December, Jagga wrote to the Secretary General, Council of States (Rajya Sabha), that the heritage articles of Chandigarh, mainly belonging to the Chandigarh Administration, State of Punjab, State of Haryana, Punjab Assembly, Haryana Assembly, Panjab University, etc., are being auctioned all over the world for the past more than 20 years, without any objection from India.

“In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs passed an order on February 22, 2011, prohibiting the sale/disposal /exports/ removal of furniture/other articles lying in Chandigarh, designed by Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier (French architect who designed Chandigarh city). Even then, auctions are going on all over the world,” he wrote.

In his petition, he stated: “The matter was referred to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) also. It said these items, being less than 100 years (now 75 years), are not antiques. So nothing can be done to protect these items. Accordingly, my prayer is that the above referred articles of Chandigarh /Punjab/Haryana be protected by any possible way in the interest of nation and the general public interest.”

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