{"id":34195,"date":"2023-04-01T07:38:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T02:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34195"},"modified":"2025-04-20T09:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T04:20:16","slug":"the-amasr-act-govt-to-ease-rules-on-construction-around-protected-monuments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/the-amasr-act-govt-to-ease-rules-on-construction-around-protected-monuments\/","title":{"rendered":"The AMASR Act: Govt to ease rules on construction around protected monuments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the AMASR Act 1958?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the AMASR (Amendment) Act 2010?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary Regarding Possible Changes in the AMASR Act<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The government will <strong>soon liberalise construction activity<\/strong> in the vicinity of protected monuments across the country regulated under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological sites and Remains (AMASR) Act.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Currently, construction up to 100 metres around protected monuments is prohibited, while an area up to 200 metres beyond the prohibited area is regulated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the AMASR Act 1958?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It provides for the &#8211;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Preservation (<\/strong>of ancient and historical monuments, archaeological sites and remains of national importance, which are over 100 years old)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulation (<\/strong>of archaeological excavations)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Protection (<\/strong>of sculptures, carvings and other like objects).<\/li>\n<li>3,696 Centrally Protected Monuments or Sites are located in India and are guarded by the <strong>Archaeological Survey of India<\/strong> (<strong>ASI<\/strong>) &#8211; a Ministry of Culture agency, which functions under the provisions of this act.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aCLF5eoCi4o\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aCLF5eoCi4o\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the AMASR (Amendment) Act 2010?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In order <strong>to strengthen the penal provisions<\/strong> to prevent encroachments and illegal construction close to the monuments, the 1958 Act was amended in 2010.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The amendments provide for the creation of a<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Prohibited <\/strong>area 100 metre around every national monument where no construction, public or private is permitted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulated <\/strong>area 200 metres beyond the prohibited area, where any construction requires permission of a newly constituted <strong>National Monuments Authority (NMA)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The amendment also suggested that <strong>heritage by-laws for each monument<\/strong> be created by an expert body given the uniqueness of each monument.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/Qbh-5uQEv8YYGa-EmD86jz2xWH79fldXLA0joJYqDhF4dmnglVJR0W2JwzTy1yARHw6Zv3npM4cUWhP1ntQAlxipGVb_BlUmEfI7G01Uc6XY7ydcmKX4vUzh6pjfrtHCXyWIwpEZaWvo\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: The AMASR Act<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary Regarding Possible Changes in the AMASR Act<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to a submission by the<strong> Union Culture Minister<\/strong>, the government has taken a decision to <strong>examine the legal issues affecting construction-related activities <\/strong>around centrally protected monuments and sites.<\/li>\n<li>This is to allow for <strong>infrastructure <\/strong>(related work), and at the same time preserve the rich heritage of the country.<\/li>\n<li>There is a feeling that the Act in its present form <strong>restricts a lot of areas <\/strong>which could be put to good use, specifically in case of developmental and infrastructure-related work.\n<ul>\n<li>Prohibiting residents from constructing their houses within 100 metres of small and insignificant structures, <strong>causing a lot of inconveniences and revenue loss to them.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It is expected that the amendments would pertain to <strong>making some relaxation in these zones<\/strong>, specifically in case of smaller monuments such as statues, cemeteries and cannons.<\/li>\n<li>Even as the government can bring about liberalisation in case of most monuments,<strong> for UNESCO World Heritage Sites <\/strong>(India has 40 of them), these restrictions may stay.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is the National Monuments Authority (NMA)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>NMA under the Ministry of Culture has been set up as per provisions of the AMASR (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010.\u00a0 It considers grant of permissions to applicants for construction-related activity in the prohibited and regulated area.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What is a World Heritage Site?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO. These are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other forms of significance. The sites are judged to contain &#8220;cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/govt-to-ease-rules-on-construction-around-protected-monuments-8531408\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Govt to ease rules on construction around protected monuments<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiaculture.nic.in\/sites\/default\/files\/acts_rules\/TheAncientMonumentsandArchaeologicalSitesandRemainsAct1958_12.03.2018.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indiaculture.nic.in<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbctv18.com\/india\/india-24-asi-protected-monuments-missing-archaeological-survey-indian-heritage-15958851.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>CNBCTV18<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The AMASR Act provides for the preservation, regulation, protection of ancient and historical monuments, archaeological sites and remains of national importance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}