Bardhaman Dot Com News Bureau
Burdwan, 1 June 04 :
The district administration today sought information from the Burdwan municipality regarding the destruction of a city heritage building by a city college. The Addl. District Magistrate, Burdwan, Vinod Kumar have asked for a list of such heritage buildings from the city municipality and have asked for their clarification on the college principal's demand about the civic body was informed about the removal of the building. The officer-in-charge of the Burdwan police station also visited the site today as instructed by the district police super.  

The principal of the college today informed that, the executive engineer, Burdwan division of the PWD at their letter dated 23.09.82 suggested the college authority to declare the portion of the building as condemned as it is not feasible to repair the same & `it is a mere wastage of government money'. The authorities today fumed against the heritage committee. The principal of the college, Sukriti Ghoshal today said, "today after we just removed the debris of a already ill-maintained & demolished building, the heritage committee have started showing their passion for the history & heritage of the city. They never have bothered to care inspite of several reminders & appeals from our side. We are accumulating & compiling all the correspondences made in this issue since 1968." Ghoshal also displayed to this correspondent copies of letters sent to the chairman of the committee way back in August 2002. `May I therefore, request you to declare MUC Women's College as a heritage building of the district of Burdwan' requested the college principal to the chairman of the heritage committee at their letter dated 24.08.02.

The leaders of the opposition have condemned the act of the college. The leader of the Trinamool Congress Chandranath Mukherjee has described the demolition as a `barbaric act' & informed `the party will protest against the act'. The Pradesh Congress Committee member Abhas Bhattacharya have also criticised the act `at the time when the Burdwan municipality & Burdwan Development authority are leaving no stone unturned to preserve heritage buildings and ancient monuments in the district.'