Centrally protected monuments of ASI, SWACHH SURVEKSHAN 2021, Promote Tourism across the Country
1. All Centrally protected monuments of ASI to open from 6th July 2020
- Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent charge),Shri Prahlad Singh Patel has announced that Ministry of Culture & Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has decided to open all the centrally protected monuments by completely abiding safety protocols from 6th July 2020.
- Only those monuments/ Museums which are in the non-containment zone will be open for visitors, and entry tickets will be issued electronically; tickets windows will not function.
- All Centrally protected monuments and Sites shall be bound by the protocols like sanitization, social distancing and other health protocols issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- Any specific orders of the State and/or District administration shall also be strictly implemented.
- Total 3691 centrally protected monuments comes under ASI out of which 820 centrally protected monuments which have places of worship were opened on 8th June 2020.
- The list of Centrally protected monuments can go up to 10,000.
- Visitors will have to share their phone numbers at the entrance of monuments for the purposes of contact tracing, if required later.
- The number of visitors for Taj Mahal has been capped at 5,000 a day (in two slots), while that of other popular monuments is between 1,000 and 1,500.
- In 2018, the 125-year-old Old High Court Building in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and two Mughal-era monuments in Agra — Haveli of Agha Khan and Hathi Khana — are among the six monuments declared protected and of national importance by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
- In 2016 and 2017, no new monument was included in the list of sites of national importance. The last monument to be included in the list, in 2015, was the Vishnu Temple in Nadavayal in Kerala’s Wayanad district.
- At present, 3,691 monuments nationwide are protected by the ASI, with the highest number, 745, in Uttar Pradesh.
- Referring to the ban on construction within 100 metres of a Centrally protected monument and regulated construction within 100-200 metres under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. The Act protects monuments and sites that are over 100 years old.
- According to the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, an “Ancient Monument means any structure, erection or monument, or any tumulus or place of interment, or any cave, rock-sculpture, inscription or monolith which is of historical, archaeological or artistic interest and which has been in existence for not less than 100 years.”
2. Introduction of ‘PRERAK DAUUR SAMMAN’ NEW CATEGORY OF AWARDS as part of SWACHH SURVEKSHAN 2021
- Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), while launching the toolkit for Swachh Survekshan 2021, the sixth edition of the annual cleanliness survey of urban India conducted by MoHUA has stated that , “Every year, the Swachh Survekshan is redesigned innovatively, to ensure that the process becomes more robust, with focus on sustaining the behaviour change.
- Like in the last year, keeping in mind the Ministry’s efforts towards ensuring sustainability of the sanitation value chain, the SS 2021 indicators focus on parameters pertaining to wastewater treatment and reuse along with faecal sludge.
- A new category of awards titled ‘Prerak Dauur Samman’ as part of Swachh Survekshan 2021 has been launched.
- The Prerak Dauur Samman has a total of five additional sub- categories -Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze), Aarohi (Aspiring) – with top three cities being recognized in each.
- In a departure from the present criteria of evaluating cities on ‘population category’, this new category will categorize cities on the basis of six select indicator wise performance criteria which are as follows:
a) Segregation of waste into Wet, Dry and Hazard categories
b) Processing capacity against wet waste generated
c) Processing and recycling of wet and dry waste
d) Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste processing
e) Percentage of waste going to landfills
f) Sanitation status of cities
- Swachh Survekhan has become a tool for citizen engagement in the spirit of a true ‘Jan Andolan’.
- A key highlight of the event was also the launch of the integrated SBM-Urban MIS portal.
- The launch of the integrated MIS portal is an effort by the Ministry to bring the numerous digital initiatives on a single platform thus ensuring a unified and hassle-free experience for States and cities and leading the way towards the creation of not just a Swachh but a truly digital India.
- The virtual event also saw the signing of the Engagement and Coordination Arrangement (ECA) between MoHUA and the USAID which is a continuation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on co-operation in the field of WASH that was signed between GOI and USAID in 2015.
- These launches were followed by a webinar on ‘Segregation at Source: Key to Solid Waste Management’ which was attended by over 1,000 State and Urban Local Body (ULB) officials and other stakeholders.
- The workshop saw presentations from lighthouse cities such as Navi Mumbai, Surat, Khargone and Karad who showcased their source segregation models along with the release of a report ‘Segregate, Segregate, Segregate’ by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
- A workshop on ‘Source Segregation: The Key to Solid Waste Management’ was also organized on the sidelines and was attended by over 1000 State and Urban Local Body (ULB) officials and other stakeholders. Similarly, the crucial issues of legacy waste management and remediation of landfills have also been brought to the fore in this edition of Survekshan”.
- To encouraging cities to improve urban sanitation, MoHUA had conducted Swachh Survekshan 2016 survey for the rating of 73 cities in January 2016, followed by Swachh Survekshan 2017 conducted in January-February 2017 ranking 434 cities. Swachh Survekshan 2018, which became the world’s largest cleanliness survey, ranked 4203 cities followed by Swachh Survekshan 2019 which not only covered 4237 cities but was also the first of its kind completely digital survey completed in a record time of 28 days.
- Swachh Survekshan 2020 continued the momentum and saw an unprecedented participation of 1.87 crore citizens.
- In the area of solid waste management, 96% of wards have 100% door-to door collection while 66% of the total waste generated is being processed.
- A total of six cities have been certified as 5 Star, 86 as 3 star and 64 as 1 star under the Star Rating Protocol for Garbage Free Cities.
- Swachh Survekshan has today made ‘Swachhata’ a thing of motivation and pride – something to look forward to and aspire for.
- Mysuru had won the award for the Cleanest City of India in the first edition of the survey, Indore has retained the top position for three consecutive years (2017,2018, 2019).
- The Ministry launched two documents prepared by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) – the ‘Advisory on On-Site and Off-Site Sewage Management Practices’ and the guidance book on ‘Segregated Collection and Transportation of Municipal Solid Waste’.
- While the first will be of immense use to States and cities in adopting integrated on-site and off-site sewage treatment technologies, the latter elaborates on various aspects of segregated waste collection and transportation systems along with case studies and best practices from different ULBs.
3. New Rules proposed to promote tourism across the country
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued a notification for amendment to National Permit regime under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 for promoting tourism across the country.
- The Ministry is in the pursuit of providing seamless movement to the tourist passenger vehicles after the success of goods carriage vehicle under National Permit Regime.
- This motive has culminated into a new set of rules, which henceforth will be known as, “All India Tourist Vehicles Authorization and Permit Rules, 2020” published vide GSR 425( E) dated 01 July 2020 for public and stakeholders consultation, which shall go a long way in promoting tourism across the States in our country on one side, while enhancing the revenue of State Governments.
- Under this new scheme, any tourist vehicle operator may apply for an “All India Tourist Authorization/Permit” through online mode.
- All such authorizations/permits shall be issued, after all relevant documents submitted as stipulated in the rules and due nationwide fees deposited towards such authorization/permit, within 30 days of submission of such applications, subject to all compliances being met by such an applicant as one stop solution.
- Moreover, the scheme entails flexibility in the form of authorization/permit being granted, as the case may be, and shall be valid for a period of three months or its multiples thereof not exceeding three years at a time.
- This provision has been incorporated keeping in mind those areas of our country where there is a limited season of tourism and also for those operators who have limited financial capacity.
- This scheme will render consolidation of a central database and fees of all such authorization/permits, which might give a sense of tourist movements, scope of improvement, promotion of tourism and help increase revenues generated through such registrations.
- All existing permits shall continue to be in force during their validity.
Travel and tourism industry in our country have increased manifold in last ten-fifteen years.
The growth has been contributed by both domestic and international tourists, and there is a trend of high expectation and consumer experience.
