Courtesy: IANS | New
Delhi | February
28, 2015 Last Updated at 18:26 IST
There was
a meagre 0.46 percent increase in the budgetary allocation for the ministry of
culture for 2015-2016 as compared to last year.
The
plan expenditure allocation for 2015-2016 is Rs.2,169 crore whereas it was
Rs.2,159 crore last year, said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday while
presenting the Union Budget.
However,
Sahitya Akademi (SA) and National School of Drama (NSD) were badly affected as
their budget allocations were cut by 54 and 44 percent, respectively.
SA's
money allocations have been reduced from 21.23 percent to 9.76 percent and
NSD'S from 43.03 percent to 13.45 percent.
The
scheme of Financial Assistance for promotion of Art and Culture has been
brutally axed with money allocations reduced from 59.33 crore to 3.20 crore.
However,
Rs.656.77 crore has been earmarked for the Archaeological Survey of India(ASI)
compared to last years's Rs.607.30
.
In
his budget speech, Jaitley said there was a great need to improve facilities at
the Unesco World Heritage Sites in India and for this the government will start
restoration process at eight sites.
"Facilities
like landscaping restoration, signage and interpretation centres, parking,
access for differently-abled, amenities for visitors, including securities and
toilets, illumination and plans for benefiting communities around them would be
restored," he said.
Jaitley
proposed to provide resources to start work heritage sites like Hampi
(Karnataka), Kumbalgarh and hill forts of Rajasthan, Rani ki Vav and Patan
(Gujarat), Varanasi temple town (Uttar Pradesh), Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsar)
and Qutub Shahi tombs (Hyderabad).
There are
32 world heritage properties in India, of which 25 are cultural properties and
seven are natural properties.
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