Government to establish Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission

Government of India has decided to establish Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission to be headquartered at Delhi. It will have a total budget outlay of Rs. 42 crore for a period of 5 years. Conceptually, the core of the Mission’s tasks would be: (i) identification, collation and assessment of information on ‘Gandhi Heritage’ material for its management and deployment, (ii) determination of conservation methodology and priorities, and (iii) dissemination of information based on relevant material.

The Mission will aim at preserving for posterity 39 Core Sites as well as other 2,000 important sites earlier identified by the Panel under the Chairmanship of Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, ex-Governor of West Bengal.

Once the Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission is set up, it will be possible to integrate the ingredients of ‘Gandhi Heritage’ comprising the large number of tangible heritage sites on one hand and the vast legacy of text and visuals on the other. The latter consist of published and unpublished documents, non-text photographs and audio-visual tangibles. The Mission would supervise, guide and assist in conservation initiatives, maintenance and preservation initiatives and in the creation of a database of tangible, literary and visual Gandhi Heritage.

Govt. of India has nominated one Chairman and 7 members of the Mission. The first meeting of the Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission will be held on 11th September, 2013.”