* UNESCO wants samadhi, Hazoori Bagh and Badshahi Mosque to be declared part of world heritage, threatens to slash funds unless monuments made part of Lahore Fort

Indian Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni has asked Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to take note of the deteriorating condition of Ranjeet Singh’s samadhi (mausoleum) and take measures to restore it to its original splendour.

Sources in the Punjab government told Daily Times on Thursday that Soni, in a letter to the Punjab chief minister, wrote that the provincial government had taken a few measures to look after the samadhi, but more was needed to save the historical Sikh monument in Pakistan. The samadhi, located near the Lahore Fort and the Badshahi Mosque, was constructed by his successors on the spot where he was cremated.

The tomb is a splendid instance of Sikh architecture, with gilded fluted domes and cupolas and ornate balustrade round the top. A marble urn inside the mausoleum contains Ranjit Singh’s ashes, while other tiny urns contain the ashes of his four wives and seven concubines, who threw themselves on his funeral pyre.

The samadhi was damaged in the October 8 earthquake.

Meanwhile, sources in the Punjab Archaeology Department said that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) had told the Punjab government that Ranjeet Singh’s samadhi, Hazoori Bagh and Badshahi Mosque should be made part of the Lahore Fort, and their control should be handed over to the Archaeology Department. The fort is on the World Heritage List of endangered sites, and the other monuments, by being made part of it, would automatically be included in the list. Official sources in Islamabad said that the UN body was considering slashing funds for the preservation of world heritage sites in Pakistan unless the monuments were declared part of the Lahore Fort.

Punjab government sources said that Archaeology Department Director General Oriya Maqbool Jan, in a letter to the chief minister, had asked that the department be granted the ownership of the monuments and that they be declared part of the Lahore Fort.

He wrote in the letter that the Evacuee Property Trust Board, which was responsible for the preservation of the samadhi, whitewashed the mausoleum time and again which was damaging it. He said that the Archaeology Department’s proposal for taking over Hazoori Bagh, Badshahi Mosque and Ranjeet Singh’s samadhi was still being mulled by the federal government, but no action had been taken.

The Archaeology Department director general said that the department could not restore these monuments because it did not own them. They required archaeologists for proper restoration.

An Evacuee Property Trust Board official told Daily Times that there was no question of handing over charge of the samadhi to any other department. He said that funds for the restoration of the mausoleum had been approved, and work on it would commence soon.