The Indian government has assured the people of the country that the Taj Mahal is safe and that there is no deterioration of the 17th-century monument. The statement from the government comes a day after the country's apex court slammed both the federal and Uttar Pradesh state governments for failing to the tackle the deterioration of the monument due to air pollution.
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"I want to assure everyone that there is no danger to the Taj Mahal's structure and there has been no change in its original color. We will submit an affidavit in this regard in the Supreme Court," Mahesh Sharma, India's Minister of State for Culture said on Thursday.
"You can shut down the Taj. You can demolish it if you like and you can also do away with it if you have already decided. Uttar Pradesh (government) is not bothered. No action plan or vision document has come yet. Either you demolish it or you restore it," Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta observed on Wednesday.
A number of studies have been carried out by various research teams regarding the discoloring of the Taj Mahal. According to one such study conducted by country's premier engineering institute IIT, Kanpur carbon pollution around the Taj is causing the white marble to turn yellow.
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Over the last ten years, the government has been occasionally carrying out "mud pack therapy" in order to remove surface deposits/accretions, black and yellow spots, thereby improving the aesthetic appeal of the monument. "The results are satisfactory as it helps in maintaining natural gloss of marble surface," Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma informed the parliament last year.