The ASI has come in for severe criticism from the Parliamentary Standing Committee for its lethargy in not writing reports of the excavations it has undertaken and thereby wasting public funds.‘‘The labour and money gone into the excavations undertaken by ASI for the knowledge to crystallise for generations and the efforts to make excavations more understandable becomes more fruitful only when the findings are documented,’’ the report of the committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture said.The previous panel, too, had pointed out this lapse and inspite of it, the Ministry of Culture has done nothing to document the excavations.The ASI’s excuse, the report says, is that it doesn’t have enough professionals and staff to do the work. In this context, it questions the wisdom of the Ministry in ‘‘loading the ASI with more missions when it’s not able to complete its earlier assigned work’’. The committee has also charged the Ministry with ‘‘lacking in farsightedness and a confused thinking’’ on conservation of the country’s rich cultural and archaeological heritage.The remark comes in the wake of ASI’s plans of first launching two national missions — one for antiquities and other for building heritage — and later merging them.According to the report, the ‘‘process indicates confusion in the decision-making process and complete lack of farsightedness on the part of the Ministry in planning its programmes and projects which has not only affected the rich cultural heritage of the country but also led to valuable waste of time and resources.’’The panel’s other concern is about the lack of protection to the monuments against encroachments and ‘‘ASI’s inability to evict encroachers’’. In the Capital alone, the report says, 17 monuments are under threat by encroachers.Asking the Centre to allocate separate funds for protecting the monuments, the committee has recommended that a minimum of Rs 100 crore be especially earmarked for it.The parliamentary committee report has questioned the Government’s decision to keep the Director of the National Archive’s post vacant and later filling it up on a temporary basis.‘‘The committee does not comprehend the laxity shown by the Ministry in running an apex institution without any head of the service,’’ the report says.
