Nomination of "Delhi's Imperial Capital Cities" not withdrawn

NEW DELHI: In a U-turn, Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma today said the Government has not withdrawn the nomination of "Delhi's Imperial Capital Cities" to the UNESCO World Heritage List but only requested the UNESCO Secretariat to "postpone the nomination".

In his reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today, Sharma said that the Government of India has not withdrawn the nomination of "Delhi's Imperial Capital Cities" to the UNESCO World Heritage List but has "only requested the UNESCO Secretariat to postpone the nomination."

Further, he replied "yes" to a question on whether the ministry was aware that out of the 220 UNESCO world heritage cities not even one is in India.

However, it may be recalled that on May 22 Sharma had said the Government has taken a decision to withdraw the nomination of Delhi as the UNESCO World Heritage City, in view of the restrictions in carrying out infrastructure works in the national capital after the city comes into the heritage list.

The decision to pull Delhi out of the race for UNESCO World Heritage City tag had left heritage lovers disappointed and drew criticism from them.

The Ministry of Culture had sent the initial nomination to UNESCO in 2012 and the final "voluminous" dossier for it, prepared by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) was sent in January last year.

The two areas listed in the dossier are Shahjahanabad in old Delhi which has the Mughal-era heritage and Lutyens' Bungalow Zone (LBZ) in New Delhi, part of the new imperial capital designed by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker after the 1911 Delhi Durbar.