AGRA: Stung by the Supreme Court’s remark to “either restore the pristine beauty of the Taj or demolish it”, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to submit a draft vision document on restoration and preservation of the mausoleum before July 21.Avanish Awasthi, principal secretary (tourism), said, “The draft will be submitted within the stipulated duration. The School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi, which was engaged for preparing the vision document, has almost finalised the document.”The SC, on Wednesday, expressed anguish over the state government’s failure to come out with a vision document to save the marbled monument.Meenakshi Dhote, head of environment planning department at the School of Planning and Architecture, said, “We will submit a copy of the draft to the UP government according to the scheduled duration of four months, that was given to us by the SC. The final copy will be submitted in September.”Raman (who goes by his first name), a member of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee, said, “No change will take place until proper execution is made at the ground level to preserve the Taj. Many earlier reports have been prepared in connection with the monument’s protection but how many were actually executed?” he questioned.Raman also said that the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) had prepared a report about the load-bearing capacity of the 360-year-old monument. “But nothing has been done by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) so far to prevent any damage to the mausoleum due to heavy tourist influx,” he added.Environmentalist MC Mehta said, “Both Centre and state government have not taken the issue seriously. The state government could not save the Yamuna river from pollution either. Meetings, reports and verbal statements are not enough to protect the world heritage site and the surrounding 10,400 square kilometre Taj Trapezium Zone area.”The UP government had signed an agreement with School of Planning and Architecture in March this year after

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