Now, monumental fines for graffiti

Does your blood boil at the sight of our historical monuments and archaeological sites being defaced with graffiti and messages? The good news is that soon vandals will have to shell out Rs 50,000 as fine – 10 times more than the Rs 5,000 charged now. They might also have to spend one year in jail.

However, there is a catch: The state archaeology department has just 98 guards to protect the 371 monuments under its ambit, which forces it to depend on the police to enforce these laws. This manpower shortage means that even recently renovated monuments are defaced quickly.

Under the Maharashtra Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1960, the State preserves historical monuments, records and sites.

According to this law, anyone who "destroys, removes, injures, alters, defaces, imperils or misuses a protected monument," or removes any object like a sculpture, carving, image, base-relief or inscription from such monuments shall, on conviction, be punished with a fine of up to Rs 5,000 and/ or imprisonment up to three months.

Tejas Garge, director of Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, confirmed that they had proposed an amendment to the act to increase the quantum of punishment to up to Rs 50,000 and one year in jail. This is likely to be tabled before the state legislature's winter session.

"We have no rights to fine people on the spot for such acts and have to lodge FIRs with the police after which the offenders are tried by magistrates. Even if we demand these rights for ourselves in the Act, we have no manpower to enforce the rules," admitted Garge.

Officials from the directorate admitted that since the police were burdened with law and order and crime investigation, issues such as protected monuments being vandalized took the backseat. This led to "very negligible" amount of such cases being lodged.

"However, increasing fines to levels like Rs 50,000 coupled with a year's term in jail may serve as a deterrent," said an official.