Saturday, Jun 25, 2022

UNESCO tag will increase tourist footfall at Ramappa temple: Errabelli

By Telangana Today

Published: Published Date - 12:28 AM, Wed - 28 July 21

Minister Errabelli felicitating Papa Rao and Panduranga Rao of the KHT in Warangal on Tuesday. Stating that there will be an increase in international footfall in Warangal in the coming days, he said the government will take all steps to provide facilities at the Ramappa temple at Palamapet in Mulugu district.

Warangal Urban: Stating that inscription of the Ramappa temple as the World Heritage Site by UNESCO on Sunday was a moment of pride for people of Telangana, Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Errabelli Dayakar Rao showered praises on founder trustees of Kakatiya Heritage Trust (KHT) BV Papa Rao (former IAS officer) and M Panduranga Rao (former Professor of REC, Warangal) for their sustained efforts to get the tag.

The Minister felicitated Papa Rao, Panduranga Rao and architect Suryanarayana Murthy with shawls at Rampur on Tuesday. “Both Papa Rao and Panduranga Rao did a lot of work for the last 11 years to get the World Heritage Site tag to Ramappa Temple built by the Kakatiyas 800 years ago,” he said, adding that the State government, led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao launched its campaign for nomination through the Centre in 2016.

“The Chief Minister spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi besides submitting an official representation to the Centre. Following this, the Union government filed its nomination with the UNESCO in 2019. Since then, the State government had written several letters and reports to UNESCO as and when they raised queries with the help of Prof Panduranga Rao, architects Suryanarayana Murthy and Chinthamani Gopal,” Dayakar Rao said.

The Minister said he along with Ministers V Srinivas Goud, Satyavathi Rathod, MPs Banda Prakash, P Dayakar, Maloth Kavitha, MLC Pochampally Srinivas Reddy, Prof M Panduranga Rao and other officials went to Delhi on June 23 and submitted a representation to then Minister of Tourism and Culture and the officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and urged to them take steps to impress upon UNESCO to inscribe Ramappa Temple as a World Heritage site.

Stating that there will be an increase in international footfall in Warangal in the coming days, he said the government will take all steps to provide facilities at the Ramappa temple at Palamapet in Mulugu district. “Employment in the tourism sector will witness a boost,” Rao added.

Meanwhile, Papa Rao and Panduranga Rao said that the inscription of Ramappa Temple as World Heritage was only a milestone but not the end of the journey. “In fact, there is much more to do in the journey ahead to work on several other Kakatiya monuments in the next decade,” the duo added.