Railways has violated heritage norms: Tourism Minister Mahesh

Mysore: The heritage structure of the Mysuru City Railway Station has been expanded but by violating the heritage norms, said Tourism Minister S.R. Mahesh.

The Minister was speaking after inspecting the ongoing development works of the City Railway Station here yesterday and said that the Railway Station is a heritage building and the Government has identified more than 100 such buildings in city. There is a law to conserve these building. For the restoration and development work of the Railway Station, the permission of the Heritage Committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) must be taken. However, the Railway authorities have not taken the permission from the DC, he said.

When this issue was brought to my notice I had a talk with the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) and asked her to stop the work till the permission is taken. But they had continued with the work and we could not do anything about it as the Model Code of Conduct was enforced due to Lok Sabha elections, said Mahesh, expressing his disappointment.

If all the owners of the heritage buildings also follow the same way, then the heritage structures will lose their identity. Hence, this violation by the Railway authorities should be viewed seriously, he added.

There is a provision to take action under Town Planning and Municipal Act. However, seeing that this could lead to a confrontation between the State and Central Governments, I requested them to take permission. Hence, we did not take action under this Act. This Act clearly defines how the heritage works should be taken up. MP Pratap Simha must read this Act. We are not opposing the development work, said Mahesh.

This issue will be brought to the notice of the Chief Secretary, following which a meeting will be held and the Chief Minister will also be briefed. Then the future course of action will be decided, he said.

KSTDC MD Kumar Pushkar, Tourism Department Secretary T.K. Anil Kumar, Mysuru DC Abhiram G. Sankar, Police Commissioner K.T. Balakrishna, MUDA Commissioner P.S. Kantharaj, Tourism Deputy Director Janardhan, Heritage Committee Member Prof. S.N. Rangaraju and others were present.