On a mission to preserve city’s heritage
INTACH campaign to spread awareness among masses about monument preservation
LUCKNOW: Inspired by the union government’s Swachh Bharat Mission, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Lucknow Chapter, a non-profit body that works for preserving heritage and culture, launched its Swachh Monument Mission at the historical pond, Suraj Kund, in Lucknow on Saturday. SP Singh, principal secretary, urban development, inaugurated the campaign.
“Our mission is to spread awareness among the masses and to sensitise them towards monuments and heritage that reflect our culture and customs,” said Vipul B Varshney, architect, urban planner and convener, INTACH - and the person behind the launch.
During the inaugural address, SP Singh urged people not to deface monuments. “Charity begins at home. Before embarking upon any resolution, I request all of you to take a pledge to not deface any heritage structure by scribbling names on it or other such actions. It actually presents a bad picture before tourists and visitors,” said Singh at the event that witnessed participation from around 100 students of architecture engineering, Integral University.
The event also had a series of cultural events in which students from the university staged shows and sang songs to educate and sensitise the masses. A band comprising vocalist Sanjana Chakravarty and guitarist Amreen Fatima (student of architecture engineering) along with other youngsters sang songs from the movie Slumdog Millionaire. Performance of another student, Faizan Siddiqui, who sang the popular song, ‘O Ri Chiraiya’, was also appreciated.
“It is a good programme that should be organised at all public places to increase awareness among people. It is especially heartening to see students performing for safeguarding their heritage,” said Sudhir Chaudhrary, a visitor at Suraj Kund.
Students displayed banners and posters bearing clean monument slogan like - ‘clean, preserve for our off-springs’, ‘clean our monuments, our heritage’ and others. They also distributed educational literature to the visitors at the two-hour long awareness programme.
Also present on the occasion were Prof SW Akhtar, vice chancellor, Integral University and renowned historian, Roshan Taqi among other eminent personalities.