Wednesday, July 27 2005 18:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Lucknow: Admitting that the Sunni Central Waqf Board was unable to look after its properties well, the Uttar Pradesh government today (July 27, 2005) said the management of Taj Mahal would remain in the hands of the Archaeological Survey of India.

"The Waqf Board simply wants to register the graves of Mughal emperor Shahajahan and his queen Mumtaz Mahal in its records," Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mohd Azam Khan said in the state assembly adding there could not have been a better management of the monument than ASI.

Replying to a resolution moved by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Luxmi Kant Bajpai, Khan said neither the state government nor the Waqf board had any intention of interfering with the management of the world famous monument.

The board had recently declared Taj a Waqf property and had directed its registration as the same. It had also said it would decide on management of the monument at a later date.

Khan said the board's decision was not final and it could always be challenged in the court.

He said the intention behind the decision to register Taj as Waqf property was to ensure that if in future there was damage to the outer walls of the monument, most probably by extremists, there remained proof of the two graves lying inside.