The bench expressed dissatisfaction over the vision document UP submitted on Monday and demanded to know why it was submitting a ‘draft document’.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has warned the Centre and the UP government that if immediate steps were not taken, the Taj Mahal could lose its status as a Unesco world heritage site.
The court directed the two governments to fix responsibility on who should protect and maintain the historic monument of white marble.
“It would be embarrassing to lose the Unesco world heritage site tag,” a bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told the attorney-general, while demanding immediate interim measures to preserve the Taj.“Vision document will take years and years. What happens in the interim?” The court will decide on any suggestions given on Monday.
The bench expressed dissatisfaction over the vision document UP submitted on Monday and demanded to know why it was submitting a ‘draft document’. “You want us to correct it?” Lokur asked. A final report will be submitted in a few months, the court was told. Gupta then rapped the state for not cracking down on polluting units in the Taj Trapezium Zone.
“Do you even have a list of polluting industries? Do you know which one is polluting the air or water? Do you know if they have sewage treatment plants? Do you know how many challans have been issued by the pollution control board,” asked Justice Gupta.
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