Parliament has on Wednesday, passed the ‘Heritage Bill’ with several amendments.

The bill was passed unanimously after thorough evaluation from the parliament’s National Development and Heritage Committee with careful consideration from related ministries and institutions.

A notable amendment brought to the bill, proposed by Baarah MP Ahmed Abdulla was to omit forming an independent institution in order to give ease to the budget. This was done after discussions with the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.

Maldives Cultural Heritage Bill was drafted to assemble a Maldivian heritage registry, which is to include heritage sites, history and traditional artifacts of local islands. The implementation of the bill will ensure that preserving and protecting heritage in the country, is made compulsory, further ensuring that rules will be set to maintain the country’s heritage.

Some of sites included under the act are historic sites and archaeological findings, crafted items, paintings, archives, books and writing as well as other items that have historic value to it.

The implementation of this bill will prove to be immensely beneficial to the country’s heritage. To determine the historic value of said items, the bill states that it needs to be dates, at least 100 years or have “cultural value”. Buildings as stated under the bill need to have been constructed before 1950.

A penalty will also be set for damaging items or vandalizing historic buildings. Exporting items with historic value is also to be banned under the bill.

Introducing the legislation was included in President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s first 100-day action plan.