PANAJI
Minister for Archives and Archaeology, Subhash Phaldesai, assured the Goa legislative assembly on Friday that the government will come out with a Heritage Policy for Goa within a year.
"We are in tandem with the sentiments of the House. The process to draft the heritage policy which will add more monuments and sites to the State's protected list and provide a mechanism for their maintenance is ongoing. We will throw it open to the public and all stakeholders for inputs," Phaldesai said, in response to the discussion on a private member's resolution jointly moved by Vijai Sardesai, Carlos Alvares Ferreira and Cruz Silva.
The resolution was however withdrawn following the minister's assurance that sentiments expressed and suggestions given by members during the discussion will be taken into account.
According to the minister, 51 monuments of archaeological importance are protected under the 'State list' while another 21 are under the Archaeology Survey of India (ASI).
In addition, some 400 private heritage buildings are listed under the Town and Country Planning Act, he added.
The resolution
Earlier, moving his resolution, Sardesai had argued that Goa had at least another 430 more monuments and structures of heritage importance in addition to those already on the 'protected list' but the State government had failed to establish a 'Heritage Conservation Policy' due to which, all this heritage is in peril.
Sardesai said the archives and archaeology department lacks the resources needed to protect the State's heritage and cultural legacy, especially the nearly 500-year-old archives, which he said, is perhaps the oldest in Asia.
Call for inclusivity
AAP's Velim MLA suggested that the heritage policy cannot be the sole and exclusive domain of the Archaeology department.
Other departments like Art and Culture, TCP, Panchayat, PWD and WRD also have to be in the loop as they have jurisdiction over several of these sites, Silva said.
Silva also attacked the government for failing to give representation to scholars and qualified persons from the tribal community on policy-making consultative panels and advisory committees. The tribal community is one that is most responsible for preserving the State's culture and heritage and therefore must be taken actively on board in any policy-making related to heritage conservation.
Khazan and
Gaunkari system
AAP's Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas made a case for the inclusion of the unique and said to be thousands of years old 'Khazan system' and measures to preserve this age-old ecosystem in the ambit of the policy.
Similarly, he also made a case for the inclusion of the 'Communidade' or Gaunkari system in the policy saying it was an intangible heritage of Goa.
Heritage houses
Alvares Ferreira urged the government to also pay attention to the heritage homes of the State which he said are an attraction for their architectural richness and aesthetic beauty.
He suggested that some sort of an economically viable proposition needs to be brought out in the policy for the owners of these homes as maintenance costs are extremely high and it would be criminal to let them fall and get destroyed.
He said laws and regulations as of now are attuned to initiate action only after something like collapse or damage happens. He stressed that this logic needs to change and the policy must have a measure by which these heritage homes can be maintained, restored and put to economic use.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao and RGP MLA Viresh Borkar also spoke in support of the resolution suggesting that it is extremely important to preserve the State's heritage, whether it is the monuments or the cultural heritage.
