Mysuru: The Heritage city celebrated World Heritage Day with a Heritage walk and other events on Monday. Ironically, as many as 201 heritage structures including Mysuru Palace are still waiting for the Heritage tag, thanks to the apathy of the Ministry of Urban Development.
It has been more than two years since an amendment to section 13 E of Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act 1961, was proposed by department of heritage and museums to include guidelines to identify heritage structures but it is still pending with the state government.
In Karnataka, 1360 structures are protected monuments. In Mysuru city alone, there are 201 heritage structures, identified by the ministry but only 39 structures have been declared monuments.
In Mysuru city, only Nandi statue in Chamundi hills, Wellington lodge, Kodi Someswara and Kodi Byraveswara temple, Lakshminarayana temple, Prasanna Krishnaswamy temple, Trinayaneswara temple and Varahaswamy temples in Mysuru Palace premises, Mahalingeswara temple in Lingambudipalya have been declared heritage monuments by the state. Lansdowne building and writer R.K. Narayan’s residence were declared heritage structures by Mysuru Urban Development Authority.
There are several such monuments including Jayachamarajendra art gallery at Jaganmohan Palace, where precious artefacts including historic paintings of Raja Ravi Varma are lying in a dilapidated condition.
“Several people are demolishing their buildings with heritage value, and this can be prevented only by passing the amendment,” an officer at the department of heritage and museums said.
