Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 29: In a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting the importance of preserving art, museum and archives in the State, Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Kumar today directed the State to submit clear timelines for the complete restoration of historic Mubarak Mandi complex as till date only 10% of the work has been completed.
After going through the presentation given on behalf of the State Government, Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society and Archeological Survey of India, the DB observed, “it appears that approximately 10% of the restoration work of the entire complex has been completed till date and 90% of the work remains to be done”, adding “in order to have a clear cut path for achieving the balance 90% work, it is imperative that appropriate timelines for planning and execution of the works are set in place”.
“The entire restoration work has been entrusted to the Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society, which was formed in 2006. Eleven years have elapsed since then and concerns have been raised in this petition with regard to the slow pace of restoration. Only 10% of the works seems to have been completed in these 11 years and going by the same rate of progress, it would take approximately another 90 years unless work is undertaken on all the structures/buildings simultaneously”, the DB further observed, adding “this needs to be examined by the Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society because the more the time passes the worse would be the condition of the buildings and structures”.
About preservation of archival records, the DB observed, “at present part of archival records is housed at Mubarak Mandi complex and part of it has been shifted to Kala Kendra”, adding “it appears that the entire archival record available at Mubarak Mandi cannot fit into the three halls and that Kala Kendra may not be a fit place for finally lodging the archives unless and until the entire building is made archive friendly. Therefore, alternative places should be explored for setting up of the repository for archives”.
“A total of 33,88,734 pages of the archives have already been digitized. About 12 lakh pages remain to be digitized. There appears to be stoppage in the digitization activities because of non-availability of a server and procurement of the server should not pose any problem and the same should be done immediately”, the DB said, adding “the digital data also needs to be backed up in a proper manner. The complete plan of backup and the timeline for scanning the balance pages as also setting up of the server should be indicated in the affidavit to be filed within 10 days”.
Division Bench further directed State Government and the Society to submit clear cut timelines both for the planning stage and the execution stage so as to ascertain when the entire project of restoration would be completed in all respects. “We also feel that while undertaking the project of restoration, the Society should also focus its attention towards the maintenance of the complex and the Government may also consider providing a separate budget for maintaining the restored complex along with the gardens and other floriculture and horticulture requirements”, the DB added.
Advocate Pawan Dev Singh appeared for the PIL whereas Senior AAG Seema Shekhar for the State and ASGI Sindu Sharma for the Union of India.
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