Perched on a hill-top and overlooking the Tawi River on one side and the sprawling city of Jammu on the other, the 150-year old Mubarak Mandi Complex, the seat of the Dogra rulers of Jammu, is sought to be preserved as proud heritage of the Dogra Desh. The oldest building in the complex dates to 1824 and most probably was raised during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The palaces are built as a group of buildings around spacious courtyard. Successive Dogra rulers added to the complex in size. The buildings were used as the residences of the royal Dogra families and its halls and galleries hosted official functions and public events. The buildings were brought up in combined Rajasthani and Mughal architectural design with magnificent pillars, balconies, arches and courtyards. After the termination of Dogra rule in 1947, the complex continued to be used as the seat of various Government offices, High Court, Treasury and other departments till a new secretariat came up at present site. However, owing to age and weather conditions, the complex was declared unsafe and had to be vacated. But taking into account its historical and cultural ethos the complex was declared “Protected Monument” and the Archaeological Survey of India agreed to undertake its preservation and reconstruction in 2008. Thus came into being Mubarak Mandi Jammu Heritage Society, the bicameral organization to execute and monitor the work of preservation and renovation of this monument. The Union Government sanctioned 286 crore rupees including 52 crore under 13th Finance Commission’s provision for the preservation and renovation of the entire Mubarak Mandi Complex.
Snail-pace work at the complex is an irritant to the people of Jammu region who rightly consider it a historic symbol of their proud heritage. Consequently, the RTI application dated September 24, 2012 filed by a social activist, Raman Sharma, revealed that the total estimated cost of the Mubarak Mandi project is about Rs. 300 crore out of which only Rs. 3.52 crore has been utilized by the society during last four years for the restoration of a portion of it. The renovation work is carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India which has also submitted utilization certificate dated January 23, 2012 amounting 3.52 Crore rupees (Rs. 284,19,466 for conservation work and Rs. 67,49,534 as departmental charges dated January 23, 2012). According to the petitioner during four years of work only 1 per cent of the sanctioned amount has been utilized. If this is the speed at which the entire work is to be completed, it would take at least one hundred years to do so.
The row actually is on the speed with which ASI is working. The MMJHS, in its reply to the RTI application, has categorically stated that there is no time limit for the completion of the work. The question was raised in the Upper House of the Assembly which was told that the Government of India has sanctioned Rs. 4.37 Crore for renovation/restoration of erstwhile Army Head Quarter and Rs. 8.51 crore stands released under 13th Finance Commission for restoration of Raja Amar Singh Palace, Dogra Art Museum, Badi Deori, Royal Court, Gadvai Khana and Mahal of Raja Ram Singh’s Queens. The demand of a member of the Upper House that a Committee be constituted to examine and report on the progress of preservation work was disallowed on the plea that till date four governing body meetings were held under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister and 20 meetings of the Executive Committee were held under the Chairmanship of Chairman Executive Committee of MMJHS. However, it was agreed that after the Durbar moved to Jammu, a group of stakeholders to be nominated by the Chairman of the Upper House would visit the complex.
Keeping this background in mind, we think that it is possible to understand the reasons for delay in executing preservation work with better speed while it is also possible to understand the reasons why the project needs to be speeded up. This is a huge complex and except for the foundations, the entire super-structures need to be repaired for preservation. That is a time consuming task and there is some justification in contending that no time limit can be imposed. Apart from this, the money is mainly to come from the Central Government, and it is released in instalments. Much time is consumed between the release orders of instalments. Execution work naturally gets delayed. It is a bureaucratic bottleneck and nobody is to be blamed for it.
But on the other hand, it has also to be understood that inordinate delay means subjecting the complex to more dilapidation and more damages. In other words it would mean escalation of the cost of preservation besides demand for more labour and more time. Quicker the conservation lesser is the possibility of further escalation of cost of preservation. Additionally, there is also the emotional factor attached to it. The present generation of Jammu people would very much like to see this historic heritage monument restored to its previous glory and grandeur at an early date.
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