The fate of historic Mubarak Mandi complex is hanging in balance. On the one hand there is great urge among the people of Jammu to preserve this historic and monumental heritage site and on the other hand negative forces like lack of interest, incompetence of the expert staff, paucity of funds and a little bit of political apathy, all have combined to put the plan of restoring of this complex into jeopardy.
Ten years ago, a big decision was taken to preserve and protect this historical monument and save it from further dilapidation. Cooperation of the Archaeological Survey of India, the recognized expert agency was sought and understanding was reached of how the plan of preservation and renovation would be executed. On December 28 2006, the State Government constituted the Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society under Societies Registration Act of 1998. The idea was that the Governing Body and Executive Committee of this Society would play crucial role in ensuring speedier execution of restoration work so as to save the historic complex for the generations to come. However, the Society has failed to achieve the objective behind its creation as barring discussions in its Governing Body and Executive Committee meetings not much progress has been made on restoration of the complex. One full decade has passed and no concrete output is to be recorded for whatever money has been spent so far in the name of preservation of the complex. The entire scheme has gone through sordid state of things. The apprehension is that full dilapidation of the standing complex might over take the sluggish speed of preservation work undertaken by the ASI. In almost every meeting of the Heritage Society, the Chief Minister, who also happens to be the chairman of the Society, would be faced with questions about slow pace of improvement in the work of preservation. Even the ASI has been unable to do much in carrying the preservation work expeditiously. The monsoon rains are playing havoc with the complex which has already suffered a lot owing to vagaries of weather. Every time when the issue of slow pace of work is highlighted the concerned officials as well as ASI state that conservation work is highly technical and takes much time but why there is slackness in identifying other agencies is not revealed. Naturally it creates suspicion in the mind of an impartial observer that there could be vested interests working behind the scene. After all, so many monuments in the country have been preserved using the best and most modern technology of conservation. Mubarak Mandi Complex remains an enigma, to say the least. The notable thing is that the Society is unable to identify alternative expert agency with which an agreement of undertaking preservation work in shortest possible time could be struck. The result is that the present snail’s pace of preservation work continues. Yet another big hurdle in the path is that of funds. As per our information the complex needs at least an amount of rupees 198.77 crore if the original plan of preservation of the complex is to be adhered to.
Government of India had sanctioned Rs 50 crore and Rs 16.80 crore under 13th Finance Commission and Mega Tourism Project respectively for this historic complex. Out of this, Rs 8.5 crore and Rs 3.38 crore had been released as first installment and accordingly an amount of Rs 8.38 crore was released in favour of the ASI for ongoing restoration work of Royal Courts, Gadvai Khana and Badi Deodi. This means that the project was never allowed to be starved. Why then is there the complaint of paucity of funds is difficult to understand. Recollecting the history of the project, we come to the conclusion that there is inefficiency and lack of vision as well as the dedication to the work undertaken. Hence pretexts are made and the project is left to linger on oblivious of the disastrous consequences of the vagaries of weather. Will the complex survive few more rainy seasons or not is the question.
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