HYDERABAD: The Municipal Administration department has constituted a four-member committee to look into the structural stability of the Osmania General Hospital building. The committee was formed on March 10 in response to a Public Interest Litigation filed by Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) in the High Court. The committee refers to a proposal from the Health Department to demolish the building.
The four members of the committee are the Engineers-in-Chief from the R&B, MAUD and Panchayat Raj and Rural Development departments as well as the Chief City Planner, GHMC. The committee has been mandated to submit its report within 15 days. “It is respectfully submitted that the issue of demolition of the Osmania General Hospital building requires a comprehensive consideration of various attendant circumstances so that there is a substantial compliance of all the statutory provisions,” the order reads.
Interestingly, the order begins by stating that the Health, Medical and Family Welfare department has sent in a proposal to the government for permissions under the HMDA Heritage Regulations 1981 to demolish Osmania General Hospital (Inpatient Block). The proposal was received by MA&UD on March 9 this year.
Incidentally, experts from Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) had prepared a report in 2015 that stated that the building was in good condition and structurally stable and all the damages visible were on the surface level and due to leaking pipes.
The INTACH team of experts included architects Divay Gupta and SP Anchuri along with INTACH convener Anuradha Reddy and co-convener Sajjad Shahid and others. In its 21-page report, the INTACH team said, “Based on visual inspection, the existing heritage building block is in very good, structurally stable condition.”
The report said that the flaking of the surface that often injured patients was due to water seepage which can be repaired easily. It pointed out that the walls of the building are designed with adequate structural margins.
Decision on whether or not the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) building should be demolished will be taken only after IIT structural engineers submit their report, not after the State-appointed committee’s report, the Telangana High Court pronounced on Thursday.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili made the remarks while hearing two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) in this regard. Advocate General (AG) BS Prasad informed the court that the government of Telangana under the Municipal Administration & Urban Development Department had issued a GO and constituted a committee.
The AG further informed that on the receipt of the inference report of the constituted committee, the government would be in a better position to arrive at a decision on whether the hospital buildings should be marked as heritage buildings. Senior counsel for the petitioner Sarasani Satyam Reddy said that according to the Errum Manzil Judgment of 2019, OGH still remains a protected heritage monument.
After hearing both sides, the HC bench said that decision in this regard could be taken only after the structural report was received from IIT engineers and not from the State-appointed experts. However, the court will let the State committee file its report.