Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 13: About 122 eminent personalities have approached the Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha over the slow pace of work on the Mubarak Mandi Palace Jammu and the proposal to move some Government offices into Shergarhi complex in Srinagar.
“The people from both the regions have joined hands to approach the Government for the preservation of the two protected monuments in Jammu and Srinagar,’ M Saleem Beg, former Director General Tourism (J&K) and the chairman of the National Monuments Authority said today.
In a petition to the Lt Governor, 122 personalities, including former INTAC, chairman H S K Misra, former Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council M Y Taing, Dr S S Billouria former J&K Chief Secretary, former JL Nehru University Professor, Amitabh Mattoo, Parvez Dewan former Secretary Tourism, GOI and others said it is the duty and constitutional responsibility of the Administration to promote and protect the heritage of J&K.
The petition said while rapid urbanisation and lack of concern towards the cultural assets have resulted in vandalisation and loss of many significant landmarks, some of those still exist include the Mubarak Mandi, Jammu and Shergarhi Palaces in Srinagar.
Keeping in view their historic and cultural value and on the persistent demand of the elected representatives and the civil society, the then State Government had notified these complexes as State Protected Monuments under the J&K Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1920 amended in 2010.
In the case of Mubarak Mandi, the petition said the declaration was issued on April 26, 2005 vide SRO-126, and subsequently, the complex was put under the charge of a separate agency, Mubarak Mandi Heritage Society.
“This society initiated the restoration of some of the buildings through the Archaeological Survey of India and other agencies. However, the work on other remaining buildings has not picked up at the desired pace,” the petition added.
“The restoration and reuse plan, already taken up at the monument, needs to be implemented without any further delay,” the petition demanded.
It further said that Shergahi complex of Srinagar was declared a State Protected Monument on July 6, 2017 vice SRO-207. The complex was placed under the charge of Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museum. In December 2019, it was decided that manuscripts, artefacts and other cultural material should be shifted to Shergarhi for its proper storage and preservation as well as for taking up restoration of the complex.
“But a disturbing information has been received that the UT Administration is proposing to shift some Government departments to this complex. This will irreversibly tamper with its historic character,” the petition said.
“No action should be taken to dilute the integrity of the complex, like locating Government offices in the protected monuments. Any inappropriate use of these buildings will go against the letter and spirit of their status as State protected monuments,” the petitioners pleaded.
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