Mangaldai lawyers demand heritage status for historic buildings, seeks CM's intervention

Mangaldai, Dec 13: A group of socially conscious lawyers of the Mangaldai Bar, which has been constantly raising the demand to tag five heritage buildings of Mangaldai under Section 3 of the Assam Ancient Monuments and Records Act, 1959, since 2009, has reiterated its demand and moved Assam's Chief Minister, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, to intervene in the matter so that the buildings in question are handed over to the archaeology department in accordance with the request made by the department to the Darrang district administration way back in 2013.

The lawyers' group comprising Jayanta Deka, Sailendra Kr Goswami, Nirod Deka, KaIpana Deka, and Nayanmoni Deka in a recent petition appealed to the Chief Minister to ensure handing over of the five heritage buildings of Mangaldai - old treasury building (1852), old circuit house (1852), CJM's court building (1889-90), old police station (1930), and DC's bungalow (1918-19) - to the State's archaeology department as per its earlier request letter (no.ARCH261/Darrang/ 2013014/367 dated August 17, 2013).

In the recent petition, the lawyers pointed out that despite the request letter sent by the archaeology department to the Darrang district administration in 2013, the administration has miserably failed to comply with the request for more than a decade and put the matter in cold storage for a period of eleven years.

They requested the Chief Minister to issue a directive to the district administration to accede to the letter of request from the director of the archaeology department within a span of one month, so that the process of tagging the buildings with heritage status gets expedited. The petitioners also requested the CM to call for a probe into the cause of the long delay in com- plying with the archaeology department's request.

It is worth mentioning that lawyer Jayanta Deka and a few colleagues had first moved the department of cultural affairs through the Darrang deputy commissioner in 2009, pointing out that the buildings specifically described in the schedule were in a good shape at that point of time and had withstood two major earthquakes that rocked Assam over the last century. The buildings speak volumes about the past social customs, interior and exterior decorations, architecture, and the history of building technology. The lawyers had further observed that everybody should cherish and appreciate these buildings for their very special qualities and conserve them to help the new generation to get connected with their rich past.