the goan I network
PANAJI
Leaders of the Goa Archdiocese have said that on perusal of the ‘adopt a heritage’ scheme documents, they are of the opinion that since it involves putting in place peripheral amenities without compromising the core monument it will be beneficial.
“As the minister has said, it was a unanimous decision. This project should be accepted as it is beneficial to the monument. Again, the core monument is not going to be touched. The core monument is in the custody of the ASI owned by the Church. That’s not going to be touched. It’s the periphery, which we are okay with,” Fr Joaquim Loiola Pereira, secretary to Archbishop told reporters.
Fr Pereira was speaking after attending a high-level meeting chaired by Goa Archives and Archaeology Minister Vijai Sardesai to discuss in detail the pros and cons of the central government’s ‘adopt a heritage scheme’.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Archbishop of Goa, Archdiocese of Goa and Daman, the parish priest of Se Cathedral and the rector of Basilica of Bom Jesus, both located at Old Goa, along with government officials, including Chief Secretary Dharmendra Sharma.
“After reading the scheme, things are very clear. The scheme does not speak about the takeover of monuments. It does speak about giving the monuments to be taken care of. It speaks about peripheral benefits, about facilities or amenities that have to be created to help the tourists. It is not to help the Church, it is to help the whole system “ the people who visit, whether pilgrims or tourists,” Fr Valeriano Vaz, the procurator of the Goa Archdiocese said.
The Church, however, admitted that it was kept in the dark over the scheme of the government and plans to hand over the church cluster to a private party for upkeep.
“We came to know later on. In fact, we had our own doubts, that’s why we came for this meeting,” Fr Pereira said.
In Old Goa, at present, the church owns the monuments, while the maintenance is done by the ASI.
The project, ‘adopt a heritage’, has been started by the Union tourism ministry with an aim to entrust heritage sites and monuments and other tourist places to private and public sector companies and also individuals for the development of tourist amenities.
It is a collaborative effort between the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and State/UTs governments.
