Monumental legislation: 

Monumental legislation: 

Context:

• The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which is pending in the Lok Sabha, attempts to address the issues confronting construction for public works due to proposed plans running through ‘prohibited’ area (100m around a protected monument or area).
• The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958 bars any sort of construction within the prohibited area of these structures.

Explanation:

1.The Bill amends Section 20A of the 1958 Act to allow public works in prohibited areas within the monument or archaeological site.

• Any question as to whether a particular work is of a public nature or not shall be forwarded to a competent authority under the Act, which will make its recommendation and place it before the Centre, whose decision will be final.

2.In case any department of the Central government proposes to carry out any public work within a prohibited area, it will make an application to the competent authority.

• The authority will make its recommendation and hand it over to the Centre, which will take a final decision and communicate it to the applicant office or department within 10 days of the decision.

3.The Bill also amends Section 20I of the 1958 Act. This is a note to the competent authority to make its recommendations to the Centre only after conducting an archaeological, visual and heritage impact assessment.