PUDUCHERRY: Raj Bhavan constituency MLA K Lakshminarayanan has urged the government to reconstruct the Mairie building with traditional building materials.
In a memorandum to the Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Parida, Lakshminarayanan said that the government should go for reconstruction, matching the original drawing of the collapsed Mairie building and also by using traditional construction materials which stood the test of time.
He lashed out at the Union Territory government for forming the State level Heritage Advisory Committee without the representation of the local MLA. A meeting of the committee was convened a month ago and it was reliably learnt that while reconstructing the Mairie building it was proposed to use the modern construction materials which is against the ethics and practice of conservation of heritage buildings.
“If modern construction materials are used, the restored building will not be valued as heritage building though the design and architecture remain the same. Stating that it would amount to cheating the people in future, Lakshminarayanan said that even people might question the idea of calling the building as heritage building. The real meaning of conservation is preservation of the heritage values of the government buildings at least,” he pointed out and stressed that government should always be a role model and not tread a wrong path to the society.
Alleging that the collapse of the building is a sheer act of negligence on the part of government departments, he recalled that when he was Tourism Minister the building was repaired and put to use in 2001 where Heritage Summit was held. Thereafter due to poor maintenance it was badly damaged and finally collapsed in November 2014. It is painful that till today the government has not taken any decision on reconstruction of the building, he lamented.
Even the ASI Officers have objected to the idea of using modern materials for technical reasons, he said.