Hyderabad:
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) finally arrive in the city on Wednesday and will carry out its inspection of Charminar, Golconda Fort and Quli Qutub Shahi Tombs starting today. The city has been pushing for World Heritage tag for these structures for many years now and has pinned its hopes on the visiting team for it to come through.
GV Ramakrishna Rao, director, department of archeology and museums, said the team will start its survey with a visit to the Quli Qutub Shah Tombs on Wednesday morning followed by the Golconda Fort in the evening where they will also attend the sound and light show. On November 2, the team will inspect Charminar followed by a separate visit to Chowmohalla Palace on November 3.
While officials of the Archaeological Survey of India and the department of archeology and museums remained tight-lipped about the Icomos visit, they were optimistic that all three monuments would make the prestigious World Heritage Monument tag. An archeology department official said, “Work has been moving at a fast pace so that the inspection goes well. All three monuments are being spruced up. We are confident of getting the heritage tag.” Clearly, officials believe that their months and years of indifference to the city’s crumbling heritage will not show with quick sprucing up efforts.
While the Bhagyalakshmi Temple and the Chilla in Charminar will continue to remain untouched, ASI officials said that the overhead water tanks used by the temple have been permanently removed after consulting temple officials. They however added that temple officials are yet to heed to their repeated requests of removing saffron flags and buntings put up during Dasara. Heritage activists noted that the authorities had failed to utilise the window of opportunity provided to them after the Icomos visit was delayed.
It was earlier reported in these columns that the series of inspections were scheduled to take place from September 25 onwards, but was delayed due to passport issues of one of the expert committee members. “Charminar continues to have lichen on its walls and the Qutub Shah tombs are surrounded by encroachments. The GHMC had hastily taken up demolition of these encroachments near the tomb complex but made little progress. We were informed that smaller encroachments will be removed for just one day,” said an activist.
Meanwhile, a group of noted heritage activists said that the government has kept them isolated from the Icomos developments.
They said that despite making several requests with the government for a meeting with experts, they have received no reply. An activist requesting anonymity said, “They are afraid that we will speak about the Naya Qila issue where the government is clearly at fault. We want to appraise our concerns with the Icomos team but the government has completely shut us out.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / November 01st, 2012