India: Drinking in heritage forts precincts may land you in jail
Maharashtra minister warns visitors against polluting local environment
Mumbai: In a major warning for revellers, any person found drinking in the precincts of heritage forts in Maharashtra may be slapped with a fine or a jail term, or both, soon, a state minister indicated here.
The ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government plans to introduce provisions to penalise people on the wrong side of the law as far as maintaining the sanctity of forts is concerned.
“We shall bring in a law that would provide for three months in jail and a fine of Rs 10,000, or both,” Cultural Affairs Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said in the legislature on Monday.
He said that his ministry would hold discussions with the Law & Judiciary and Home ministries in this context.
Besides, Mungantiwar warned that visitors to these forts who are found spoiling the premises or polluting the local environment would also attract action by way of hefty fines.
“We shall implement various activities to maintain the sanctity and cleanliness of all these forts. Punitive action will be taken against those who desecrate the sanctity of these heritage monuments. Rewards will also be offered to the informers who can provide inputs about those who sully these historical structures in any manner,” Mungantiwar said.
Maharashtra has around 450 recorded forts around the state comprising imposing hillforts, awesome sea-forts, in urban or rural centres, river-sides or forests dotting almost every district.
Constructed by various Indian or foreign rulers of different dynasties, some of these forts are said to date back to over six centuries, and although many are in ruins, some are still in excellent condition.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists from the state and outside throng several of the popular forts that fall in the regular tourism circuits of Mumbai, Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nashik, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Satara, Kolhapur, Nagpur, etc.
At times, adventurous youngsters have been witnessed carrying liquor stocks for merry parties in isolated corners of some of these forts and discarding the empty bottles, spoiling the environment, which may likely be curbed after the proposed new laws take effect.