The National Monuments Authority (NMA) overruled its own Competent Authority official in Telangana while giving the no-objection certificate (NOC) to a builder to develop villas between the Golconda Fort and the Qutb Shahi Tombs complex.
This is borne out by a recent letter the Telangana government wrote: “The Telangana Government is not a mute spectator. The Heritage Department of the Telangana government strongly ( ghatuga in Telugu) opposed the NOC in its letter dated 2/4/2019. However, the NMA overlooked the objections and gave the NOC (sic).”
The government, in fact, raised multiple issues in its objection to the issue of NOC, as a letter seen by this reporter shows. The State raised the issue of absence of guidelines and bye-laws for protecting heritage. The NMA, in turn, passed the buck for the absence of heritage bye-laws on to archaeology departments at both Centre and State and Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (Intach).
Why the haste?
The NMA, which has become the canalising agency for issue of NOCs, has an elaborate mechanism for processing the applications. A denial or approval of NOC has to be given within a month. If the NOC is refused, the applicant is given an opportunity to submit or offer comments and clarifications with the whole communication process being completed within three months. However, for the issue of NOC near the Golconda Fort, the whole process was completed within a month.
According to heritage activists, the proposed villas will block visual connection between the two heritage sites and will be a setback for Telangana’s bid to get a ‘Unesco World Heritage Site’ tag.
At a recent closed-door meeting on heritage in Hyderabad with Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar in attendance, heritage activists from Hyderabad including Sajjad Shahid, convenor for Intach-Hyderabad, Anuradha Reddy raised the issue of development of the villas. “There is no clear definition of protected areas leading to the precarious situation where villas are being sought to be built within a heritage precinct. Heritage Impact Assessment has to be carried out by reputable institutions and not individuals,” she said.
Online campaign
Meanwhile, an online petition ‘Stop 54 villas for the super rich from being built at Golconda Fort’ is gaining traction. Launched a week ago by Muhammad Abdul Nayeem, it has already garnered close to 2,800 signatures.
