The State government is yet to notify the draft heritage regulation bill which was submitted by a committee of experts almost 8 years ago, in the absence of which there is little protection to heritage buildings in the city.
The lack of heritage guidelines to protect these structures has come into focus following the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Council’s decision on Tuesday to demolish both Lansdowne Building and Devaraja Market and construct a new structure in their place.
There are at least 235 buildings in Mysuru which have been documented and classified as heritage structures in view of their historicity and architectural style besides being an intrinsic part of the city’s landscape and share a slice of local history.
Sources said none of them lack any semblance of protection in the absence of a heritage regulation bill and risks being effaced. If it were to be notified, there is onus on conservation and even repairs have to be approved by an expert body so as to ensure that the original structural profile was not altered. “'There is a mafia behind the delay in enacting the rules governing the maintenance of heritage structures”', said an official,”pointing out that lack of such rules will abet their demolition to pave way for commercial complexes. There are many heritage structures that are private buildings and even the owners are against it as enactment of rules will make sale or reuse of the structures by rebuilding difficult'', said the official.
N.S. Rangaraju, a member of the Heritage Committee, said that the heritage list will be expanded for which the exercise of documenting and classifying them will commence in February. But none of it will matter unless there are rules to protect them. He said if the government itself was unwilling to protect heritage structures under its ownership then it will send a wrong message to owners of heritage structures in the private domain.
In the absence of rules, the city has lost a few landmark structures in recent years as they were demolished and they include S.K.Irani’s bungalow. Only R.K.Narayan’s house at Yadavgiri was saved and converted into a museum.
