Website on Heritage Initiatives

05-March-2013 14:27 IST
NCF and HUDCO agreed 
The Minister of Culture Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch has said that National Culture Fund (NCF) and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 18th October, 2012. With the signing of the MoU, NCF and HUDCO agreed to utilize their respective strengths for the following:

1.     Training and Capacity Building
2.     Disaster management
3.     Museum upgradation
4.      Environmental improvement and provision of amenities
5.      Conservation and restoration of monuments
6.     Any other activity representing the cultural heritage of the country. The details of the salient features of the MoU are at Annexure.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today Smt. Katoch said, on the implementation of the said MoU, the Corporate Social Responsibility activities of HUDCO shall benefit the preservation and restoration of heritage buildings, with the provision of basic amenities/facilities at heritage sites and promotion, training/capacity building, awareness generation for the enhancement of culture and the improvement of the quality of life of citizens and development of the habitat sector.

This is an Umbrella MoU, which does not mention any fund allocation. Fund allocation is to be made upon the signing of individual project specific MoU’s between NCF & HUDCO subsequently, the Minister added.
Annexure
The salient features of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)The executed MoU identified the following areas of mutual cooperation:-1.     Training and Capacity Building- to actively work for sensitization of the local functionaries/implementing agencies for orientation towards cultural and heritage preservation. The local authorities as well as other role players shall be the focus of the training. International institutions working in the field shall also be involved in the training and capacity building programme.

2.     Disaster Management – to initiate joint research in the areas of traditional materials and technologies, damage assessment and retrofitting. Including strengthening measures and prevention of damages by taking up pilot projects.

3.     Museums- to ensure the improvement, value enhancement and revitalization of existing museums. Including state of art technology display, interpretations and presentation.

4.     Environmental improvement and provision of amenities- to work for improving the environmental conditions in and around world/other heritage sites including provision of basic facilities/amenities.

5.     Conservation and Restoration – to work for conservation and restoration of monuments/sites (protected/heritage building) which are State owned/Govt. of India owned.

6.   Any other activity which is mutually considered important/relevant to hereinabove referred areas of co-operation.(PIB)

***AD/DB