Capital's monuments lie in ruins

NEWDELHI: A 14th century mosque in Lado Sarai lies `buried' amidst largemulti-storey buildings that has come up around it. A Mughal-era gumbad in VasantVihar is home to some squatters and no authority has been able to oust them.Monuments in the Walled City have been encroached by people claiming to bedescendants of the original owners, and are being kept underlock-and-key.Over a week after the 13th century Lal Mahal inNizamuddin fell victim to unscrupulous builders, the fate of 775 other heritagebuildings listed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) seems to be faringany better. Times City visited 10 such monuments located all across the city,only to find that most of the structures may soon meet the same fate as LalMahal.The locals in many areas are not even aware of the presence ofa historical building in their locality and are misusing the structures as cowsheds or extended residential premises. In several cases, structures have alsocompletely vanished with no authority willing to take responsibility forthem.In Zamroodpur village behind Lady Shri Ram College, there arethree Mughal-period tombs, partially collapsing due to neglect. One of the tombsis buried behind huge buildings and access is impossible. Another is crushedbetween two residential buildings and being misused. Similar is the story inother parts of the city. The many historic tombs and gumbads in the Mehrauli DDApark, which are not looked after by ASI, are being misused by locals. One ofthese structures in the park has been white-washed and its original facade canno longer be seen.Next to Zafar Mahal in Mehrauli, locals said thereexisted several Mughal period buildings which have not survived increasingurbanisation. Said a local shop-keeper: "In the last 20 years, many buildingshave come up here in the vicinity. Where at one point of time, you could see theMughal buildings, today all one can see are the huge structures that have comeup in front of them.''A Lodi-period tomb Bara Lao ka Gumbad in theDDA park behind Priya complex in Vasant Vihar has been encroached by squatterswhere passersby are known to be threatened by the encroachers. About 10 stepsaway is another ancient tomb known as Baradari. Here too access is not permittedand the structure itself is crumbling with neglect. Another historic tomb in RKPuram has a broken roof and now stands in the middle of a slum area which isbeing used as a public urinal by the slum dwellers.In the WalledCity, one has to go through small-winding lanes, virtually inaccessible, to getto many of the monuments. There is a mosque near the tomb of Razia Sultan and aseparate plastic enclosure has been made next to it which, according toresidents, is used by the imam as his residence. A washing area has also beenmade within the enclosure of the tomb. The tomb of Shah Turkman, has nothinghistoric about it excepting the tomb. People living there, who claim to be hisdescendants, have redone the tiling on the walls and the floor. They have alsorepainted the premises green. If you are lucky, you may enter the premises whichis otherwise kept under lock-and-key.Said Khalid Mirza, who claimsto be a descendent of Turkman: "We look after the tomb now. We had the tiling onthe walls re-done as the place was falling apart.''At the Haus Qazimosque, which is one of the oldest mosques in the city, shops flourish at theentrance and the imam and other descendants of the Qazi live there. There areother shops within the premises also. The structure is situated near the ChawriBazar Metro station and is easy to miss among the clutter of shops aroundit.All that is left of the Namak haram ki haveli are the archedgateways which also seem to be crumbling with time and have blackened due to thecoal shops around it. The haveli of Ghalib's in-laws is being used asresidential premises now and has partially been destroyed.With adefunct heritage society and unwillingness to accept any responsibility for therazing of Lal Mahal, it seems unlikely that the MCD will take action to protectthese historical structures in its list despite claims. Both the civic agencyand Delhi government are involved in a blame-game over why the MCD list has notyet been notified."There is a process that needs to be followed tonotify the MCD list. The civic agency needs to go to the heritage conservationcommittee formed in 2005 by the Supreme Court and from there the proceedingswill start. The committee will consider the list and see whether it should benotified. The entire issue has become a passing-the-buck thing. It's the MCDwhich has to ensure the list is notified and take the first step in thisregard,'' said chief secretary Rakesh Mehta.MCD officials, however,claim that they have given the list to the committee and the process is pendingdue to Delhi government's unwillingness to do anything about it. "We came outwith a revised list in 2005 after getting the necessary approvals and inputsfrom the heritage conservation committee. The list has been given to the stategovernment and it is for them to notify it,'' said MCD commissioner KSMehra.While the blame game continues, experts claim that MCD needsto be more proactive in protecting these structures. OP Jain, advisor INTACHDelhi Chapter, said: "These unprotected structures need protection. Even if thislist is not notified, we have repeatedly asked MCD to get its list of heritagestructures incorporated into building bylaws. This offers the same protection asa notification.'' Recently, the government announced plans to give a facelift to92 unprotected structures in time for the Commonwealth Games.