GUWAHATI, Aug 6 � Majuli has been treated like an orphan as far as its nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is concerned. Due to this, the river island has not been able to get nominated as a World Heritage Site (WHS) for the past about 17 years, lamented Majuli Island Protection and Development Council (MIPADC) general secretary Bharat Saikia. Saikia single-handedly prepared the first nomination dossier of the island for the purpose in 1997.
Saikia told this correspondent that the authenticity of the island�s claim can be ascertained with the help of present day information technology. But this point has not been vociferously asserted by those representing its case in the UNESCO meetings. This has been posing serious problems for the island in attaining the WHS status.
The State Government, following MIPADC�s insistence, has taken several steps to uphold the cause of the island, but it has not been sending the right persons to represent the island�s case in the UNESCO General Assembly or at its World Heritage Centre (WHC), he said.
The State Government should have been more vigilant on the preparation of the island�s nomination dossier so that the vital aspects which attract the attention of the UNESCO/WHC are not left unexplained or under-explained.
The failure of the State Government to get the Majuli Cultural Protection Bill enacted by the State Assembly before the end of the UNESCO General Assembly�s 30th session on July 13, 2006 at Lithuania resulted in the UNESCO referring the island�s case to the subsequent sessions of its General Assembly.
This is despite Majuli�s case being treated as a priority one relegating the case of the Red Fort to the second nomination from India for the purpose, Saikia said.
Majuli�s case again came up in the UNESCO General Assembly�s 32nd Quebec, Canada session. It was deferred again and it came up for consideration in the UNESCO General Assembly in 2012. On this occasion, its case was set aside on the ground that the forwarding agency � the Archaeological Survey of India � supplied insufficient and incomplete copies of the island�s dossier, Saikia alleged.
Now, when the island�s case has been marked for discussion in the UNESCO in 2014, the State Government is learnt to be groping in the dark, he said.