France calls out Chandigarh administration for negligence of heritage items

Chandigarh administration seems to have missed creating an inventory' for Le Corbusier furniture.

- TARUNI GANDHI

The negligence and apparent failure of the Chandigarh administration in safeguarding World Heritage and their incompetence in properly addressing official correspondence with the French Government have become an issue. On Wednesday, the police attaché at the French embassy in India disclosed that a 2011 Central government notification pertaining to Chandigarh’s heritage items was considered insufficient in combating the smuggling of rare items. This was highlighted by Fabrice Cotelle, the police attaché with the French Embassy in India. The Sunday Guardian had interacted with Cotelle on this.

Cotelle, whose role parallels that of a police commissioner in India, strongly recommended, during a conversation with DGP (UT) Praveer Ranjan and SSP (UT) Kanwardeep Kaur, among others, that the Chandigarh administration should systematically engage with France. He suggested building their case on substantial evidence related to the thefts and frequent auctions of Chandigarh’s heritage furniture crafted by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret.