Establishment of New Circle Offices and fresh posts for administering the new Circles of ASI (Archaeological Survey of India)
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF CULTURE
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-20
ANSWERED ON – 02/02/2021
ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW CIRCLE OFFICES OF ASI
20. SHRI SAMBHAJI CHHATRAPATI:
Will the Minister of CULTURE be pleased to state:
(a) whether a few more new Circle Offices have been established by ASI in the last six months down-sizing the earlier ones;
(b) If so, the details thereof including their respective jurisdiction;
(c) whether Government has created fresh posts for administering the new Circles or these would be managed through the already sanctioned manpower infrastructure which was skeletal even before; and
(d) whether downsizing the jurisdiction of existing Circles would bring improvement in better overall management and development of ancient monuments and archaeological research even though the manpower infrastructure is not strengthened further and the details thereof?
ANSWER
THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR CULTURE AND TOURISM (PRAHLAD SINGH PATEL)
(a) Yes, Sir.
(b) Archaeological Survey of India, an attached office of Ministry of Culture, Government of India vide Notification dated 28.8.2020 established Six new Circles by bifurcation of its existing Circles as per details given below:-
1. Rajkot Circle, Gujarat – by bifurcation of Vadodara Circle.
2. Jabalpur Circle, Madhya Pradesh – by bifurcation of Bhopal Circle.
3. Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) Circle, Tamil Nadu – by bifurcation of Chennai & Thrissur Circle.
4. Meerut Circle, Uttar Pradesh – by bifurcation of Agra circle
5. Jhansi Circle, Uttar Pradesh – by bifurcation of Lucknow Circle.
6. Raiganj Circle, West Bengal – by bifurcation of Kolkata Circle.
In addition Hampi Mini-Circle has been upgraded as full-fledged Circle and Delhi Mini- Circle merged with Delhi Circle.
The jurisdiction of the above Circles may kindly be seen at Annexure-I.
(c) No fresh posts have created presently. The newly created Circles are being managed through re-distribution of existing sanctioned staff of Archaeological Survey of India.
(d) Yes, Sir.
Annexure-I
The jurisdiction over the Districts of the respective States redistributed among the existing and new Circles of ASI as under:-
| Sl. No. | Name of Existing /New circles | Districts under the jurisdiction of respective Circles |
| 1. | Vadodara (Gujarat) | Ahmedabad, Anand, Bharuch, Dahod, Gandhinagar, Kheda, Mehsana, Panchmahals, Patan, Sabarkantha, Surat, Tapi, Vadodara, Diu (U.T.), Moti Daman (U.T.), Nani Daman (U.T.), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (U.T.), Navsari, Dang, Banskantha, Aravali, Mahisagar, Narmada, Valsad, Chota Udaipur. |
| 2. | Rajkot (Gujarat) | Bhavnagar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Unnagadh, Kachchh, Morbi, Porbandar, Rajkot, Surendranagar, Jamnagar, Amerli, Botad, gir Somnath. |
| 3. | Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) | Ashok Nagar, Bhind, Bhopal, Burhanpur, Datia, Dewas, Dhar, Gwalior, harda, Hoshangabad, Khandwa, Khargone, Mandsore, Morena, Nimach, Raisen, Sehore, Shivpuri, Ujjain, Vidisha, Ratlam, Jhabua, Alirajpur, Barwani, Betul, Indore, Shajapur, Agar Malwa, Rajgarh, Guna, Sheopur. |
| 4. | Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) | Anuppur, Balaghat, Chhatarpur, Chhindwada, Damoh, Jabalpur, Katni, Mandla, Panna, Rewa, Sagar, Satna, Seoni, Shahdol, Sidhi, Tikamgarh, Narsingpur, Umaria, Singrauli, Niwari. |
| 5. | Chennai (Tamil Nadu) | Chennai, Cuddalur, Chengalpet, Dharmapuri, Erode, Kanchchipuram, Karishnagiri, Namakkal, Perambalur, Salem, Thirurvallur, Thirvannamalai, Vellore, Villupuram, tirupathur, Kallakurichi, Puducherry (U.T.). |
| 6. | Tiruchirapalli (Trichy) (Tamil Nadu) | Ariyalur, Coimbatore, Dindigal, Karur, Madurai, Nagapattinam, Pudukkotai, Sivaganga, Tanjavur, Theni, Thoothukudi, Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), Thirupur, Kanyakumari, Nilgiri, Thirunelveli, Virudhunagar, Tiruvarur, Ramanathapuram, Tenkasi. |
| 7. | Thrissur (Kerala) | All districts of Kerala State and U.T. of Lakshadweep. |
| 8. | Agra (Uttar Pradesh) | Agral, Aligarh, Etah, Etawah, Ferozabad, Hathras, Mainpuri, Mathura, Kasganj. |
| 9. | Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) | Baghpat, Bareily, Bijnor, Badaon, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Jyotibha Phule Nagar, Meerut, Morabdabad, Muzaffar Nagar, Saharanpur, Hapur, Rampur, Gautam Buddhanagar, Sambhal. |
| 10. | Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) | Pilibhit, Farukhabad, Kanauj, Auraiya, Sahjahanpur, Gonda, Faizabad, Balrampur, Bahraich, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lucknow, Raibareli, Siddharth Nagar, Sravasti, Unnao, Maharajganj, Sitapur, Baraanki. |
| 11. | Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) | Banda, Chitrakut, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba. |
| 12. | Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh) | Prayagraj, Ambedkarnagar, Azamgarh, Ballia, Chandauli, Deoria, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Kaushambi, Kushinagar, Mirzapur, Sant Ravidas, Sonbhadra, Sultanpur, Varanasi, Mau, Amethi, Pratapgarh, Gorakhpur, Basti, Bhadohi, Sant Kabir Nagar. |
| 13. | Kolkata (West Bengal) | Bankura, Birbhum, Purva Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Hooghly, Howrah, Kolkata, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur, Purulia, South 24 Paraganas, Paschim Medinipur, Jhagram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands (U.T.). |
| 14. | Raiganj (West Bengal) | Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Kalimpiong, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, and State of Sikkim. |
| 15. | Dharwad (Karnataka) | Bagalkot, Belgaon, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Vijaypura, Uttar Kannada. |
| 16. | Hampi (Karnataka) | Bellary, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur, Yadgir. |
COMMENTS