The district administration has made it mandatory for all government departments to seek permission from the Heritage Committee before launching development works in the vicinity of notified monuments and structures in the city.
The move is expected to give a fillip to conservation in Mysuru. At a review meeting held here on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner D. Randeep said government departments tend to be under the impression that, as the authorities, they did not need permission from the Heritage Committee for undertaking development works. “This is a wrong notion. Permission from the committee is needed for new works and for extension and repair of existing heritage structures,” he said.
Heritage buildings are classified under different categories, and for each category there are building norms to be complied with. So far, no government department has sought permission from the Heritage Committee while private entities have been submitting proposals before the committee, the DC said.
The Heritage Committee has also mooted the idea of regulating the height of buildings along the Dasara procession route by bringing amendments to the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961. The norms mandate that no structure can be permitted to be higher than 12 m, and this is already implemented from K.R. Circle to K.R. Hospital. The committee members want this to be extended to cover the entire procession route. The responsibility of drafting a proposal on this has been vested with the Mysuru City Corporation.
A war memorial and a statue
Meanwhile, the proposed war memorial slated to come up close to the Deputy Commissioner’s office was approved by the Heritage Committee on Wednesday.
The monument will commemorate those who died while defending the country’s borders in various wars. According to the draft proposal, the memorial will be a pillar 11.4 m in height. Originally, there was also a proposal to construct a motivation hall at the memorial. But with the place being notified as a park and open space in the Revised Master Plan-2031, the authorities directed the Sainik Welfare Office to drop the motivation hall.
The committee also approved the installation of a statue of Maharani Kempa Nanjammani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana, wife of Maharaja Chamarajendra Wadiyar X and the mother of Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, at Millennium Circle. The proposal was mooted by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority.
The statue is expected to embellish the circle and be a befitting memorial to the queen who took over the mantle of administration of the Mysore kingdom after the sudden death of Chamaraja Wadiyar X at the age of 34. She ruled from 1895 to 1902. It was during her reign that several welfare measures were initiated, including the construction of Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru, the existing palace in Mysuru, and power generation at Shivanasamudra.
