State, district committees haven’t had meetings in the past two years

Telangana govt finalises dept shift plan

HYDERABAD: The nearly 150-year-old Irrum Manzil palace in the heart of Hyderabad may not be the only heritage structure facing the threat of demolition. Even as the Telangana government plans to bulldoze the palace and replace it with a new assembly building, there are as many as 162 precious structures in Greater Hyderabad which have not been given any protection for the past two years. This despite the Telangana Heritage (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Maintenance) Act being enacted in May 2017.Irrum Manzil is part of these structures and can legally be brought down as it has not been included in any Act providing it protection.Until the law came into being, these structures, many of them more than a century old, were listed as heritage buildings by Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC), which was part of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA). With the new Act in place, the committee was dissolved and these structures needed to be re-notified. But this was never done.Many heritage activists feel this gives the state government liberty to bulldoze them if it wishes to. The concern comes from previous attempts to bring down the Osmania General Hospital (built in 1866) and Chest Hospital at Erragadda (1888), both of which are part of the 162 structures. Others structures in the list are Chowmahalla Palace (1869), Koti Women’s College (1924), Osmania Arts College (1918) and Nampally Sarai .Sources in the state government say the Greater Hyderabad Heritage Committee, which met on March 23, decided to resurvey all heritage structures and then take a call on whether to re-notify them or not. The resolution of the committee reads, “The 162 structures, which were earlier identified and notified by the HMDA, may be taken up for resurvey based on the definition of new Telangana Heritage Act, schedule II, will be considered based on their conditional assessment and field verification by the members.”The 2017 Act has led to the creation of heritage committees at the state, district- and citylevel with the chief secretary, collector and municipal commissioner heading them. Except the Greater Hyderabad committee, which met twice, the state and district committees have not met even once in the past two years.“Each committee should have two members as experts with a background in archaeology and experience in conservation of heritage buildings. But none of the committees have nominated members. They are nothing but official committees,” historian and former member of HCC Sajjad Shahid told TOI.“About 340 monuments identified by the department of heritage have already been incorporated in the list of protected monuments (schedule I). Heritage structures in Hyderabad come under the purview of Greater Hyderabad committee, which come under schedule II. The state government is in the process of appointing experts,” A Dinakar Babu, director (incharge) of Telangana Department of Heritage said.Heritage conservationists also worry that there is no regulation or mechanism in place to prevent encroachments. “The Act says the main objective of the heritage committees is to identify the heritage buildings and precincts, which need to be notified as heritage structures. But instead of identifying the new ones, those which were earlier listed as heritage are now under threat,” Anuradha Reddy, co-convenor of INTACH Telangana-Hyderabad said.The Telangana government has finalised the plan for shifting 29 secretariat departments to various other buildings. According to official sources, the shifting is likely to begin on July 1 and will be completed in the next two months.