By IANS
Agra : Construction continued at the house of Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislator Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto here Sunday, a day after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) served him notice for what it termed unauthorised and illegal building work very near the Taj Mahal.
Meanwhile, the police claimed Sunday they had received no complaint so far over the construction going on at Bhutto’s house in Malko Gali of Taj Ganj.
The station house officer of Taj Ganj police station, Raj Kumar Sharma, told IANS that no first information report (FIR) “has been filed so far and the ASI and the Agra Development Authority have not approached us or filed any complaint”.
ASI’s Munazzar Ali and A.K. Raizada, officers at the Taj Mahal, told IANS: “We have served notice to the legislator and also intimated the police. We have given a written complaint to the police. How can they say we have not approached them?”
The BSP MLA is considered a right-hand man of Mayawati’s close confidant, Housing Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui.
The ASI, already on the back-foot over the goof up on the controversial Taj Corridor Project, which led to the downfall of Mayawati government in 2003, woke up late to the matter after the local media highlighted the irregularity.
A resident of Taj Ganj, declining to be identified, said: “The Taj Corridor was a good 500 metres away, but this (Bhutto’s) house is right next to Barah Khamba and the Taj Mahal is in close proximity. How can this lapse be ignored? The Supreme Court, which hears Agra related issues every Monday, should take note of it.”
According to the ASI, the legislator’s house “was being structurally renovated with large-scale addition to the original design and nobody was informed”.
No construction can take place within 500 metres of the Taj Mahal, according to directives issued by the Supreme Court in August 1996. But the BSP legislator, according to official sources, not only defied the ASI but also exerted political pressure on the Taj Ganj police station not to register an FIR.
The ASI officials served the notice on Friday.
Informed sources put the blame on the Agra Development Authority, which is supposed to oversee construction work and take prompt measures to halt illegal additions to existing structures.