Heritage activists incensed over govt move to raze OGH

Hyderabad: Emphasising that demolition of the notified heritage building like OGH (Osmania General Hospital) was against the High Court order and Constitution of India, the heritage activists have questioned the recent Cabinet decision.

Referring to the 2019 order where the decision of the ‘Council of Ministers’ to demolish notified heritage building Iram Manzil ‘was set aside’, the activist Lubna Sarwath wrote to High Court’s chief justice urging him to ‘set aside’ even this Cabinet decision for demolition of OGH building. In Erram Manzil’s case the court found, “the State has ignored various essential provisions of Law, essential procedure established by law, the directions issued by this court, and has overlooked important factors. The said decision is, therefore, clearly an arbitrary one. Thus, the cabinet decision date June 18,2019 is legally unsustainable,” it says.

Urging the Chief Justice to treat this as a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) against the ‘cabinet decision’ to ‘demolish’ notified heritage building Lubna described this as a desperate petition. “We were shocked with the government’s decision to demolish notified heritage buildings. We find it unconstitutional, against High Court order, against application of mind, against law and deeply hurting…,” she said.

Responding to the news, noted historian William Dalrymple termed this as ‘barbarous philistinism’ in his Twitter reaction. While former Finance Secretary (Ministry of Finance), Arvind Mayaram felt that there were ‘ways to modernise old buildings’, rather taking up this step. “Only in this part of the world, people live with a great pride in their heritage without any respect for it,” he tweeted.

Pained by the decision, a resident of Old City and former Osmania student, Dr Md Iqbal Jaweed felt that the resolution by TRS and AIMIM MLAs and MP gave the impression that the public was backing this. “How does this decision taken by representatives of two political parties be taken as the decision of the people?” he asked.

He recalled how the same politicians had promised to conserve the structure and construct four new blocks without damaging existing structures. “The Health Minister T Harish Rao had repeated this (assurance) in the Indian medical Association’s conference in Karimnagar. Our MP (Asaduddin Owaisi) and the floor leader of opposition (Akbaruddin Owaisi) had praised the importance of heritage building and strongly argued that it should be conserved, in the Assembly. Views of all the stakeholders should be taken into consideration before going for it,” he argued.