Heritage cell for Bidar mooted

The district administration plans to set up a heritage cell in Bidar to follow up heritage conservation works and create awareness about monuments in the district. “A proposal is being sent to the State government to set up a cell that will have conservation archaeologists, engineers and public relations officials,” P.C. Jaffer, Deputy Commissioner, said in Bidar on Thursday.

He was speaking after a meeting with resource persons from the Indian Heritage Cities Network, consultants to the State government on heritage conservation. We will request fund support from the Hyderabad Karnataka Regional Development Board, Dr. Jaffer said.

Implementation

The cell will ensure that the Heritage Resources Management Plan is implemented along with the district master plan in a phased manner. It will also create awareness, among young people, about heritage structures in the district. For example, there are hundreds of houses that are at least two centuries old. These should be protected. We should also use them to push up our tourism potential. Such works will be taken up by the cell, Dr. Jaffer said.

Paromita Desarkar, IHCN resource person, said that the cell could have resource persons from outside in the initial years.

They can train some local resource persons. Once the local capacity building is completed, the cell can run with entirely local talent and infrastructure, she said.

She pointed out that the city had around 100 heritage structures. Of these, some are recognised and protected by the Archaeological Survey of India, and the State archaeology department.

However, a lot of them are still not listed by either of the agencies. They need to be conserved and protected, she said. She observed that it was not just important to repair or maintain heritage structures. UNESCO and other agencies have focused on adaptive reuse of heritage structures. If there are heritage houses in a street, it should be used for the heritage walks.

We should also send out the message that the local community benefits by the preservation and maintenance of heritage structures, Ms. Desarkar said.



‘The cell will create awareness about heritage structures in the district’






source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/heritage-cell-for-bidar-mooted/article6381821.ece