The Hindu : Other States / Uttar Pradesh News : Centre dithers, U.P. set to celebrate Taj festival

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 17, 2004

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Other States - Uttar Pradesh

Centre dithers, U.P. set to celebrate Taj festival

LUCKNOW, SEPT. 16. The Uttar Pradesh Government plans to celebrate 350 years of the Taj Mahal in a grand way from September 27, even as the Centre was yet to take a decision regarding permission for the proposed mega international events in the vicinity of the monument.

However, the State Tourism Department has made alternative arrangements to hold the festival after the Union Tourism Ministry delayed permission to organise international events near the Taj.

Meanwhile, a Group of Ministers (GoM) is slated to hold a meeting for the first time in New Delhi tomorrow to take a decision on UP's plea on the Taj International Festival.

The UP Director-General of Tourism, Zohra Chatterjee, today said three alternative sites - Fatehpur Sikri, Sikandra and Agra Fort - have been selected by the State Government to hold functions since the Centre has delayed permission for the celebration at Taj Mahal.

She maintained that the State would organise small functions at the alternative sites as the `mega events' planned near the Taj are still subject to the Archaeology Survey of India (ASI) permission.

The ASI has not granted permission to the State Government as the GoM was yet to decide on UP's proposal.

According to the proposal, the State Government had planned to organise six international events for the next six months on full moon nights. The events were A.R. Rehman nite, Indian-Western fusion musical nite, Indian classical music nite, Sufi music nite, film star nite and Bollywood nite.

Prominent among those expected to participate in the events were maestro Ravi Shanker, Zakir Hussain, Zubin Mehta, Birju Maharaj, Bhim Sen Joshi apart from several other Indian classical music and Bollywood personalities.

The UP government had already solicited tenders from international level organisers to draw a blueprint of mega events in August last.

A delay in the GoM meeting could also result in the cancellation of events mooted by the State Government. The GoM could not meet so far as several Union Ministers including HRD Minister Arjun Singh and Tourism Minister, Renuka Chaudhary, were out of station.

Meanwhile, the state tourism department is yet to get permission from the Centre to allow tourists to visit the Taj at night.

``The State Government has already prepared a plan and also given an undertaking for protection of Taj during night as sought by the Supreme Court to allow night-viewing,'' sources maintained. However, it was learnt the proposal of Taj night-viewing was pending before the Intelligence Bureau (IB). --UNI

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