Capt hails HC status quo on heritage building
Friday, 20/05/2016
http://epaper.dailyworld.in/Details.aspx?id=54226&boxid=76942&uid=&dat=2016-05-20
DW BUREAU / PATIALA : Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday welcomed the Punjab and Haryana High Court order that status quo be maintained with regard to Kothi No. 11A located on The Mall, Patiala, which the PUDA authorities were planning to auction. The particular Kothi is an important part of Patiala’s heritage.
Upset over the government move, some of the citizens of Patiala had moved the High Court highlighting how the State government was clandestinely executing a plan to rob the princely city of Patiala of its heritage and create a concrete jungle in the garden city under the garb of modern urbanisation when there was no such need or demand.
Capt Amarinder Singh said the target was a strip of land behind the heritage buildings, one of them currently housing the office of the ADGP Railway Police, from Fountain Chowk to Children Memorial Chowk in the heart of the city.
He said on April 27, 18 commercial sites had been auctioned by PUDA on the above said location, in utter disregard to the law governing the protection and maintenance of heritage buildings. All the 18 sites were bought by the ruling party activists. Auction for 34 residential dwelling units at this site was, however, deferred for unknown reasons. According to the law, no construction can be made within the 100 meters’ radius of a heritage building or site. In this case, even the buildings constructed across the Fountain Chowk to Children Memorial road do fall within the prohibited limits, he pointed out.
