The proposal to set up a National Heritage Sites Commission is a belated recognition of the dire condition of India's historical heritage. As the Express has been chronicling over the past weeks, India is losing precious historical sites because of the monumental neglect by the government and the callous indifference of society. But in order for a National Heritage Commission to be successful, it will have to bring a paradigm shift in how we conceive historical sites. The government already has a myriad of agencies meant to preserve the nation's heritage, including of course the ASI. But these have been less than successful because they converted preserving heritage into something that was often akin to a badly-run PWD operation. (Editorial).