Does heritage tag benefit havelis or adds to owners’ woes?

New Delhi, Sept. 22: Haveliowners from Old Delhi Saturday raised “issues” that crop up after a heritage tag is given to such properties, even as architectural experts said such tags are an “asset and not a liability”.

The owners debated the issue threadbare during a workshop on ‘ Conservation of Heritage Buildings in Shahjahanabad’ organised by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation ( NDMC) and hosted by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage ( INTACH). The event sought to make owners and occupiers of havelis and other heritage houses in the Walled City area a stakeholder in the conservation process.

The interaction held at the historic Town Hall, at times, became heated, as some of the haveli owners, alleged that they ( owners) have “not been made a partner” in the policymaking for preservation and just handed over a heritage tag by the civic authorities. The multistakeholder conversation, prompted the municipal body to consider rebooting the heritage cell of the MCD. A senior NDMC official said the civic body will examine the issue of “reviving the heritage cell to facilitate the process of conservation and application for a heritage tag for buildings”.

The heritage cell, a kind of an advisory body, set up during the time of the erstwhile unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi ( MCD), has been “lying defunct” since the trifurcation of the MCD in 2012, sources said. It comprised senior officials of the civic body and some experts.

The 63- year- old architect Ashok Goel, who owns an old property in Katra Heera Lal, said the event was a “good beginning” as it gave a platform to the haveli owners and residents of such heritage properties to at least voice their problems.

“Some people got angry because the MCD has never conducted such programmes in the last so many decades, or even approached owners to make them a partner in the whole conservation process,” he alleged, adding, “the frustration, pent up over these years is bound to come out”.

Another haveli owner, who attended the event, said, “We need to understand the listing process, and be consulted in the conservation process. But, we are just handed over a heritage tag for our houses and then just have to live with the concomitant restrictions.”

Convener of INTACH’s Delhi chapter Swapna Liddle said, “The NDMC has done a good beginning with this workshop by bringing together different stakeholders on one platform, but the mo- mentum has to be maintained, and more such eve- nts need to be organised regularly in future.”

“We just wanted to impress upon them that having a heritage tag for a building or a haveli is an asset and not a liability,” she said.

◗ The multi- stakeholder conversation, prompted the municipal body to consider rebooting the heritage cell of MCD