More on collapsing heritage structures

Sir,

Dr. Javeed Nayeem in his weekly column ‘Over a Cup of Evening Tea’ dated Aug.16, while chronicling on the sad neglect by the authorities regarding heritage structures, has now touched on the collapse of the front portion of more than 110- year-old Fire Brigade heritage structure way back in 2019.

In this connection he has traced the history of holding exhibition at various venues and has mentioned that the Fire Brigade was also one of the venues which is a revelation. He has also mentioned about his part as a young boy giving very interesting details of his prowess as a marksman.

By now Mysureans are accustomed to become hapless witness of the brazen indifference of Government authorities to put off for years to take timely restoration of those magnificent heritage structures of Lansdowne Building and Devaraja Market. Instead they appear to have intentionally delayed taking prompt action for years by referring interminably to various technical committees so that the building will collapse by itself and that a new building can be built in its place.

It is public knowledge why this delaying tactics are adopted. The great tragedy is that they remain beyond the pale of accountability of their criminal negligence. Wonder why the courts too did not intervene suo motu to question the Government of its negligence because it is an issue of great public importance for the preservation of heritages of the unique city like Royal Mysore.

In this connection it strikes me that perhaps if both Gouri Satya, who writes frequently about the heritage of Mysuru and Dr.Javeed Nayeem, who unearths so many interesting history of Mysuru, join forces to come up with a book, they would do a great service to enrich the history of Mysuru.

– H.R. Bapu Satyanarayana, Saraswathipuram, 18.8.2021

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This post was published on August 21, 2021 5:55 pm