Mysuru: The Heritage City of Mysuru has lost one more heritage building and that too on the World Heritage Day. The building, located on Dewan’s Road, was demolished on Tuesday (Apr. 18) by JCB machines.

The building was located near the Dolphin Bakery and it earlier housed the Manipal Finance Office. The building was among the 201 buildings that have been listed by the Mysuru City Heritage Committee. It was the place where Ramakrishna Ashram was started before it was shifted to Yadavagiri. Rashtrakavi Kuvempu was a student of the Ashram here.  The small stretch of Dewan’s Road from Sita Vilas Road to Krishna Vilas Road has six heritage buildings. This particular building is said to be owned by a private party and after the Manipal Finance ceased operation from the building, no one occupied it and now the entire structure has been relegated to history.

The Dewan’s Road also houses ‘Padmalaya’ where the Doyen of Journalism Thathaiah once lived. The building has now been converted into Lokayukta Office. Historians say that Sadhvi, the pre-independence era newspaper, was published from this building.

According to sources in the Heritage Committee, there are around 600 heritage buildings in city that are over a century old.

However, Deputy Director of Archaeology Department Gavisiddaiah said that he has no information about the demolished building being among the heritage structures in city. He said that he has to examine records and then comment.  

Sources said that the Heritage Committee had recently listed 201 heritage buildings and the final report will be submitted in a month’s time. Once the report is submitted, the District Administration would release a list of rules, regulations and guidelines to conserve these structures.

Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep is pushing for the early release of regulations and once they come into force, it will not be easy to demolish heritage buildings, sources said.

It may be recalled here that just a week ago another heritage building near Ayurveda College Circle which housed Kerala Samajam was demolished. Last year, F.?K.?Irani bungalow, a heritage building named ‘Krupalaya’ in Nazarbad, was also razed to ground by a builder. The kings of Yadu dynasty had constructed this building to provide accommodation for ‘Huzur Secretaries.’