Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91
Vol. XXVI No. 14, November 1-15, 2016
Some talk of new life for it
(By the Editor)
Heritage Conservation Committee
Colours of Glory
Over 100 children from classes V-X took part recently in a painting contest organised by the Colours of Glory Foundation and 18 prizes were won. They also took a ‘Military History Tour’, viewing the exhibition organised by the Foundation at the venue.
Colours of Glory Foundation (www.coloursofglory.org) is a first ever initiative in India to promote public awareness of the country’s rich military heritage and seeks to do this by popularising literature and art
forms with a military theme, opening vistas of military tourism, and memorialising battles and war heroes. It
hopes to rekindle the country’s collective consciousness about its rich military heritage. The contest was the first event of the Foundation. (Pictures: Capt. D.P.Ramachandran)
At long last, the grapevine has it, the Heritage Conservation Committee, as stipulated in the Tamil Nadu Heritage Commission Bill 2012, will finally see the light of day. If this is true, it is a welcome development indeed, for the State has not seen any worthwhile steps being taken towards heritage conservation despite six years having passed since the High Court of Madras stipulated the formation of a Heritage Conservation Committee. Still, it is never too late for action and we hope that the present initiative will be effective and result-oriented.
Madras Musings has it from impeccable sources that the Government is very keen on setting the ball rolling on heritage conservation. It has reportedly seen the resultant goodwill from what little it has taken up on this front – the restoration of the National Gallery, Chepauk Palace and Ripon Buildings.There is an eagerness in Government circles, say these sources, that the heritage of Tamil Nadu be protected.There is another side to this too. The High Court has repeatedly come down heavily on the lack of protection afforded to heritage structures in the State. The latest judgement, stipulating that all temple restoration taken up by the HR&CE can only be done in consultation with UNESCO, has only added to the pressure.
It is now four years since the Government passed a Heritage Act, one of the provisions of which was the formation of a Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) under the auspices of the CMDA. But this was not the first initiative. Two years prior to this Act, the High Court had struck down the demolition of landmarks such as Gokhale Hall on Armenian Street and the Bharat Insurance (Kardyll) Building and had ordered the formation of a HCC. This was done but its composition was hopelessly lopsided. With just one member, the INTACH representative, being outside the purview of the Government, while others were employees of statutory bodies, the HCC did very little work. It did nothing to prevent the demolition of the Bible Society Building for instance, though it did salvage some of its reputation by insisting that the new building that came up had some vague resemblance to the earlier structure. As for bigger tasks, such as listing of heritage buildings, there was no progress. With the INTACH member being removed following the High Court judgement in the P Orr & Sons building case, the HCC became wholly filled with Government representatives and hardly ever met thereafter.
The Government’s legislation of 2012, for some reason, ignored the existence of the HCC and formulated a fresh one, with an identical composition! But this was never formed. As for the existing HCC, it was never disbanded. But the latter, being quite unsure of its mandate, has continued only in name.
This time around, however, it appears that the Government is keen to expand the membership of the proposed HCC and have members representing the private institutions and also scholars in general. It is believed that a more varied membership will bring dynamism to the HCC. We cannot agree more with that assessment.
The new HCC, when formed, will have plenty on its hands. It will need to take up listing and notification of heritage structures across the State. To save time, it could use the listing done for Madras by the Justice Padmanabhan Committee on behalf of the High Court in 2010. It will then need to get sufficient safeguards for the structures and, more importantly, make sure owners are rewarded by way of compensation for preservation. Can we expect such dynamism from the proposed body?
