AGRA: Due to the heavy rains and high winds lashing Agra last night, a minaret of the entry gate of the Taj Mahal came down crashing. The metal pillar of height 12 feet at the entry gate, called as Darwaza-e-Rauza collapsed due to the wind speed during the thunderstorm that crossed 100 km per hour of speed.

According to the sources, the pillar fell just past midnight on Thursday and the minaret and dome on it broke into pieces.

The iconic tourist attraction heritage site is maintained by the Archeological Society of India (ASI) and it has appealed to the Supreme Court for sorting out the ownership of the Taj Mahal against the decision of the UP Waqf Board to declare Taj as its property.

The Apex Court of India on Wednesday asked the Sunni Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh to show documents that were signed by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to prove that it owns the Taj Mahal.

“Who in India will believe that it the Taj belongs to the Waqf board,” asked the Bench, comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, and added that such issues must not waste the time of the top court.

The ASI said before the top court that since Independence of India the society was allotted with the authority to maintain the Taj Mahal site and before that it was taken over by the British.

The Uttar Pradesh government was directed by the Supreme Court on March 23 to place before it a draft of vision document over the issue of protection and preservation of the Taj Mahal and environment in the Taj Trapezium Zone.

The government of Uttar Pradesh informed the top court that it was currently working over the vision document which would help in the protection and preservation of the 17^th century old mausoleum. It asked for at least four weeks’ time from a bench of justices Madan B Lokur, Kurian Joseph and Deepak Gupta for completing the work on the vision document.

The ASI, in January, after a study said that the Taj is losing all its sheen and the pollution factor is taking a toll on the structure in Agra. According to the experts, the abrasive nature of the particulate matter present in the air due to pollution is damaging the surfaces of the Taj.

The Indian Agency, ASI, in October 2017, stopped temporarily the restoration work at the Taj Mahal and asked for help from engineers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). According to some experts, the repeated mud packs to clean the white marble may pose risk in weakening the structure.

Apart from these, there were some controversial statements from political figures some months ago. An MP from UP claimed that the Taj Mahal is in fact Tejo Mandir. He is a fanatic from the Hindutva faction.

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