Kalaburagi researchers met Tourism Minister HK Patil to discuss city monuments to get UNESCO tag

• Dr Rehaman Patel

Kalaburagi: Kalaburagi-based noted photographer and historian Mohammed Ayazuddin Patel and artists and researcher Rehaman Patel both met Karnataka State Tourism Minister HK Patil at Bengaluru on January 4.

They both raised the issue concerning Kalaburagi monuments which are pending to get UNESCO tag. The minister replied to their question that the state ministry and department are fully focusing on the proposal ‘Monuments and Forts of the Deccan Sultanate’. We are working seriously on this proposal he said.

Especially from Kalaburagi the Bahmani fort and Haft Gumbaz are recommended for UNESCO tag. According to sources, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) committee of UNESCO reviewed and accepted the proposal on April 15, 2014, adding it to the tentative list. However, the proposal has yet to receive the coveted UNESCO tag.

The Department of Archaeology, Museums, and Heritage who submitted a proposal to the World Heritage Advisory Committee through the Department of Culture, Government of India, in February 2014, to include the monuments and forts of Kalaburagi, Bidar, and Vijayapur districts of Karnataka under the title ‘Monuments and Forts of the Deccan Sultanate’ is pending since a decade.

Now it’s a time to wait and watch as the minister assured that they are seriously focusing on the issue.