Shopkeepers, royal family against demolition of Lansdowne Building, Devaraja Market
Mysuru: Shopkeepers of 125-year-old Lansdowne Building and 122-year-old Devaraja Market have the backing of the Mysuru royal family in their protest against the Mysuru City Corporation Council's resolution to demolish the two heritage structures.
The Mysuru City Corporation passed the decision in 2017 and forwarded it to the government. But later, an expert committee on Mysuru heritage development submitted a report to restore them, while the state-level task force advised demolition and reconstruction of the two structure, said Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner K.H. Jagadeesh.
The scion of royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar in his Facebook post has stated, "This resolution is an extremely disturbing stance.
Mysore's Heritage tag itself will be in jeopardy if we go about demolishing every structure and taking the easy way out. I have always maintained, and continue to be of the opinion that our heritage is the life blood of Mysore and protecting it is our foremost duty. I propose that the Government handover the restoration to a reputable organization that has the capability to restore the structures, and do the needful to ensure that our built heritage remains standing for future generations to enjoy."
Mr Bhamy V. Shenoy of Mysuru Grahakara Parishat , said, "Mysuru should learn from historic cities like Florence, where private vehicles are banned in the central parts visited by tourists. Also a small country like Uzbekistan is serving as a model by taking pains and succeeding in restoring their 600-year-old heritage site rather than demolishing it, which is now being visited by a large number of tourists from different parts of the world. If they keep demolishing heritage buildings and sites in the name of modernisation, it will alter the basic character of the city. Why will any tourist be interested to visit Mysuru to see modern gleaming buildings? We need to have a group of experts to develop a solution. We need to move fast as the buildings are crumbling fast, as there has been no maintenance all these years."
Mysore heritage development expert committee member Eechanur Kumar said, "The decision is unscientific and it is against the structural ideology of forefathers of city like Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV. The tender to restore the two heritage buildings has been awarded to a Mumbai-based company. It had completed 75 per cent of the work and even the payment was done. We tested their work and it is as per heritage norms. While several heritage structures are already vanishing, if these two buildings are demolished that will become a bad example and slowly all other heritage buildings too will be gone. The state government must quash the resolution passed by MCC Council and restore them."
