Sir,
Reference Mubarak’ Mandi’s pristine glory hits roadblock’ (DE Oct 17, 2013) followed by an Editorial note ‘Decay threats Heritage Complex’ (DE Oct 19, 2013).
When we all recognise ASI the only expert and genuinely competent authority with a long experience and when for the first time ASI Head Office have come forward to establish their authority that, ” They have the requisite expertise and do not need consultations with outsiders”, the ball is now in our court to decide whether this prestigeous historical monument should be handed over to ASI who already maintaining 69 or so big and small heritage sites in J&K without anyone’s interference or let this unwanted exercise continue in the hands of State Government where Tourism Deptt have sidelined the Deptt. of State Archealogy and Archives, MM Heritage Society (if it still exists in the light of a new Society ‘Heritage Development Society Jammu’ formed by them) and INTACH another NGO from Delhi, whose clear cut mission ”To convert this heritage into a great tourist destination” have come to light when this issue rocked the State Assembly, two years ago.
During past eight years i.e since 2005 when these Royal Palaces were declared as ‘State protected Monument’ work done by ASI and the damages caused by this nexus are quite visible on ground. At one hand they are blaming ASI for causing delay, but on the other hand they are day and night busy to demage these structures here and there and that too with their own engineers, only to achive their goal.
Hence, very easy now to decide whether we want Mubarak Mandi’s restoration/preservation to its pristine glory as our valuable heritage or get it to be converted into a business Centre in the garb of great tourist destination. A fine observation by the Governor J&K that “These historical asset are required to be conserved not only for the promotion of cultural tourism but as irreplaceable land mark of our rich heritage” can further help us to reach right decision.
Yours etc….
Narsingh Dev Jamwal
Jammu
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