Efforts are also under way to get as many views and feedback from heritage experts before giving the final recommendations to the government.
Gujarat will soon get a heritage policy of its own. And to make it as effective as possible, the state's heritage policy committee is holding several public consultation meetings all over the state. The latest meeting will be held in Ahmedabad next Friday.
This meeting will be the sixth in the series of conferences held in the state. Rajkot, Vadodara, Surat, Bharuch, Patan and Vadodara hosted the others.
"We are trying to sensitise the public on the need for heritage conservation. We are working on the agenda of transparency and looking for people's participation," president of the public consultation committee of heritage policy, PK Ghosh said.
Committee member Ajay Chaudhary said efforts are also under way to get as many views and feedback from heritage experts before giving the final recommendations to the government. "The draft will be submitted to the government in a couple of months. We hope the policy will be declared by mid-2010."
Members of the committee have regularly been in touch with experts from all over the country as well as from abroad at a personal level to learn and adopt their model on heritage maintenance. Architects, patrons of several institutes of art, architecture and other concerned organisations have especially been invited to give their ideas.
However, only those buildings that are less than 100 years old fall within the purview of the heritage committee, the rest are maintained by the Archeological Survey of India.
"Getting funds for the conservation of these structures is a bottleneck. We hope to spread awareness in the general public through these meetings, and get funds from corporates," Chaudhary added.
Other conservationists also feel that certain laws are actually in conflict with conservation of heritage structures. "Getting international valuation can help. Security of these monuments is also an emerging concern, especially in light of the heist at Jamnagar palace," Chaudhary claims.
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