For UNESCO nomination cycle 2024-25, govt has prioritised 'Maratha Military Landscapes' dossier

New Delhi, Feb 8 (PTI) The UNESCO nomination dossier for Majuli has been submitted by the Assam government under the natural category but the Centre has decided to prioritise the dossier of 'Moidams' or the mound-burial chambers of the Ahoms for the 2023-24 cycle, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy said this in a written response to a query in the Upper House of Parliament.

This year, for nomination cycle 2024-25, the government has also prioritised the nomination dossier of the 'Maratha Military Landscapes of India' from Maharashtra. Only one dossier can be submitted from the State Party for a nomination cycle as per the Operational Guidelines-2023, he added.

In response to another query, on whether the government is aware of the vacancies in Groups A, B and C posts in organisations under the Ministry of Culture, and whether any remedial measures have been taken to address this, he said, "Yes." "In order to address the vacancies, remedial measures have been taken in the Ministry of Culture by reporting vacancies to UPSC, SSC and other recruitment agencies under the mission recruitment drive conducted by the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Accordingly, 3,215 vacancies across Groups A, B and C of the Ministry of Culture and its organisations have been reported to various recruitment agencies vis-a-vis UPSC and SSC for initiating recruitment processes," he said .

Against these reported vacancies, 1,468 dossiers have been received out of which appointment letters have been issued to 1,093 candidates, the minister said.

In response to a separate query, he said the National Archives of India (NAI) initiated a project for digitisation of its records in January 2021.

"In the first phase, large-scale digitisation has been initiated by the National Achieves of India through an outsourcing agency for a period of three years. As on 02.02.2024, 3.83 crore pages have been digitised for uploading on the search portal https:// www.abhilekh-patal.in for their accessibility to scholars, historians, academicians, researchers and other users of archives in the country as well as across the world," he added .

Further, in the second phase, the NAI has initiated a project of digitisation of all its records through an outsourcing agency, Reddy said.

Asked about vacant posts at the NAI, he said some posts in the NAI are lying vacant. The relevant proposals for filling up of these vacant posts have been submitted to SSC and UPSC as the case may be. PTI KND ANB ANB