Odisha anthropologist Kishor Basa to head National Monuments Authority

BHUBANESWAR: Kishor Kumar Basa, vice-chancellor of Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University Baripada, has been appointed as new chairman of the National Monuments Authority (NMA). He will remain in the post for three years.
He is also the chairman, Indian National Confederation and Academy of Anthropologists (INCAA). He was the Tagore National Fellow, ministry of culture, during 2019-20.
Basa told TOI that bye laws and plans should be prepared for each centrally protected monument because each monument has its unique feature and unique problem. One must follow the mandate of the NMA and the Act associated with it, requirement of different stakeholders and proper coordination between the state government and the Centre, he added.
“The most important thing is to create consensus on different matters related to protection and preservation of the monuments. Different monuments have their own problems like disputes in land records, security problems and conservation issues. We will take the views of different experts, approach the government departments to solve the issues and work with different stakeholders in this regard,” said the professor.
The country has more than 3,600 centrally protected monuments. On the Puri Jagannath Temple issue, Basa said he can comment on the issue after going through the files and court judgments. “It is a complex issue and I am not in a position right now to comment on that,” he added.
Basa, a native of Baripada in Mayurbhanj district, had topped in the state in the 1973 matric examination. He completed his BA from Utkal University and MA in history from Delhi University. He joined as a teacher in Utkal University in 1980 soon after completion of master’s degree. He secured his PhD degree from University of London in 1991. He became head of the anthropology department of the university later.
This professor, an expert in archaeological anthropology and museum studies, was posted as director of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, Indian Museum Kolkata and Anthropological Survey of India. The most significant work of his career was excavation of an archaeological site at Harirajpur in 2012-13 in Odisha and discovery of three skeletons of Neolithic-chalcolithic period.