Telangana: Old buildings to lose heritage tag

Hyderabad: The Telangana state Legislature on Sunday passed the Telangana Heritage (protection, preservation, conservation and maintenance) Bill, 2017. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said the existing Heritage Act made in undivided AP was incomprehensive and was confined to protecting a few heritage structures in urban areas, mostly in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority limits, while the new act will be extended to entire Telangana.

He said several buildings were categorised as heritage structures including some private ones in the old Act. Due to this, the government was facing problems in their renovation and maintenance.

A state-level body styled as TS Heritage Authority headed by chief secretary will be constituted under the new act.

It will have the power to notify and denotify heritage buildings. Similarly, for GHMC and HMDA limits, the government will constitute a Greater Hyderabad heritage and precincts committee headed by GHMC/ HMDA commissioner.

The Chief Minister said buildings in the city such as the Greenlands Building, the nursing college near Raj Bhavan etc., were placed under the heritage buildings list. “No one knows how so. That they were constructed long ago does not qualify them for heritage status. For such classification, a building should have historical significance. Liberal grant of heritage status in undivided AP is now posing a problem for us. We could not construct a new guest house in the place of Greenlands due to this rule,” he said.

State empowers itself on heritage
Introducing the Bill in the Legislative Assembly on Sunday, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said the existing heritage law was enacted in undivided Andhra Pradesh was incomprehensive.

The Chief Minister also referred to the famous Jogulamba temple in Gadwal and the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad.

“These structures were handed over to the central archaeological department. I visited the Jogulamba temple during the Krishna Pushkaralu last year. There is a huge rush of devotees but no facilities exist there. The archaeology department doesn’t allow any changes. The same is the case with Golconda Fort. We need to seek permission every year from the archaeology department to hoist the Tricolour for Indepen-dence Day,” Mr Rao remarked.

The Chief Minister said only a new Act has been passed, but the rules over how to notify, denotify heritage buildings will be made after taking the opinion of parties in an all-party meeting soon.

“Telangana has several structures, forts, temples, masjids in districts which have historical significance. But they were ignored in undivided Andhra Pradesh. We need to decide as to which structures should be declared as heritage structures and conserve them,” Mr Rao added.

However, Ms Anuradha Reddy the co-convener of INTACH said, "It's a good move to pass the new act but it should be implemented in a proper manner, and not in an ad-hoc way. Also, the rock structure and natural heritages should also be covered in this Bill.”