Malik Isan mosque demolished during the 2002 riots in Isanpur area of Ahmedabad, where World Heritage Day celebrations were organised on April 18, still awaits its restoration but the State Archaeology Department says there is no such plan in the pipeline. The 12th Finance Commission made a Rs 12-lakh allocation for the repairs and restoration of monuments in the state but sources in the State Archaeology Department said the grant could not be utilised for want of skilled workers and it lapsed by March 2010 when the Commission’s tenure ended.
“When the 13th Finance Commission came, it did not provide for any grant for the restoration of this monument,” sources said. They added that efforts may be undertaken to seek grants from the state government now. Officials said the restoration work itself would take at least 5 years if it were to begin today. When contacted, Y S Rawat, director of State Archaeology Department, said, “Nothing has happened since the last meeting on the issue about a year ago. There is no provision in the 13th Finance Commission for specific grants and we are not doing anything further for now.”