The Hindu : New Delhi News : NDMC yet to notify heritage list

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Friday, Jun 22, 2007
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New Delhi

NDMC yet to notify heritage list

Mandira Nayar

Old buildings in Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone in danger

The list has been pending with the NDMC for the past 18 months
The Centre is believed to have directed the civic agency to notify the list immediately

NEW DELHI: More than half its “jurisdiction” is history. But the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is yet to take the first step to prevent this history from disappearing.

Even five years after the World Monument Fund listed Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone as one of the 100 most endangered sites, it is yet to notify a list of heritage buildings in its area.

Dragging its feet on this list, the NDMC is not in a position to frame a policy for heritage as it does not have an inventory of the buildings. While the NDMC had published the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) list in 2001 – asking people if they had any objections to the buildings listed by INTACH – that list was never given legal sanction as it was never notified.

“The Heritage Conservation Committee that was formed in 2005 under the Union Urban Development Ministry had also suggested that the NDMC notify the INTACH list. This list has also been approved by the Delhi Development Authority and is included in the latest Master Plan for Delhi-2021. But the NDMC has done nothing till now. Unless this list is notified people can knock down buildings without any penalties,” said a committee member. Taking note of this delay, the Union Urban Development Ministry is believed to have directed the civic agency to notify the list immediately.

“This list has been pending with the NDMC for the past 18 months. The committee when it was formed examined all the anomalies that came out from this public notice. There were some buildings that had disappeared in four years. There were other buildings where owners had raised some objections. The committee then had strongly urged the NDMC and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to notify these lists, stating that it could always add more buildings later. The idea was to give the buildings some sanction to put a stop to the attrition that has gone on too long,” said a committee member.

As the custodian of imperial Delhi, the NDMC may have pretty pictures of white-washed buildings on its posters, but it has no plan about how to deal with this lineage. There is no heritage cell in the NDMC and a policy to deal with historic buildings is at best a distant dream.

An assessment report commissioned by the NDMC also noted that there was a need for heritage management plan for important public buildings so that they are conserved according to international norms.

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