RE-NOMINATE DELHI for 'WORLD HERITAGE CITY': AAP GOVT to CENTRE

New Delhi, Jan 21 (PTI) AAP government has urged Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma to renominate Delhi as a UNESCO World Heritage City, a year after the Centre pulled it out of the race for the coveted tag. The decision to pull out Delhi barely a few months before its fate was to be decided at the 39th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn last year, had left heritage experts and lovers disheartened. In a letter to Sharma dated January 20, Delhi Culture Minister Kapil Mishra said, there has been no "formal communication" to the Delhi government, regarding last year's withdrawal of nomination and that any endeavour in this regard should not be looked at with political considerations. "Just before the meeting in Bonn, the nomination was either withdrawn by the government of India or deferred. There has been no formal communication to the Delhi government in this regard. "It may be relevant to highlight that the Delhi government had spent a considerable amount of time and resources on the nomination process and proceeded with the nomination only after the Ministry of Urban development gave its consent on February 19, 2015," Mishra wrote. The Centre earlier last year had decided to "pull out" Delhi's nomination as the World Heritage City, saying the prestigious tag, if granted, will put "lot of restrictions" on carrying out infrastructure works in the national capital. Sharma, however had said that the Centre was open to the idea of renominating the city. In its bid to re-enter the race for the UNESCO tag, the government has again proposed "Delhi's Imperial Capital Cities", namely Shahjahanabad in old Delhi and Lutyens' Bungalow Zone (LBZ) in New Delhi, for the nomination to the World Heritage List. Mishra requested Sharma that the dossier be sent for the next nomination cycle at the 40th Session of the World Heritage Committee, scheduled to be held in Istanbul, in July and that it be "pursued vigorously". "With its rich and cosmopolitan cultural heritage, Delhi is like a 'Mini India'. It is essential that this rich cultural heritage of Delhi is projected before the world in right earnest. Any endeavour in this regard should not be looked at with political considerations," he said. The dossier was prepared by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) which listed Shahjahanabad, dotted with Mughal-era heritage and Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, (LBZ) part of the new imperial capital designed by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker after the 1911 Delhi Durbar. Meanwhile, Nalanda university is the 2015 entry from the country for the UNESCO World Heritage City tag in the cultural heritage segment in pursuance of which the Ministry of Culture through the Archaeological Survey of India had sent an over 200-page-long nomination dossier on January 23 last year. The fate of the ruins of the ancient university in Bihar will be decided at the 40th Session of the World Heritage Committee -PTI