MANGALABASH Palace, a unique 19th century architectural heritage at Sutrapur, is facing the threat of losing its appearance as the Kabi Nazrul Government College has started renovation of the palace’s main building with ordinary masons and some local people have occupied other portions.
The ongoing renovation of the main building, now used as a hostel of the college, has already destroyed its unique neo-classical architectural style as masons replaced the age-old lime plaster with the contemporary cement plaster, said Urban Study Group Chief Executive Officer Taimur Islam.
The USG, a platform of heritage site protection campaigners, formed a human-chain on Monday protesting at the renovation at the palace. Taimur said that the college authorities ignored their demand that the renovation should be carried out by skilled people instead of ordinary masons. He said that Mangalabash Palace was in the list of 2,200 buildings which was placed before the High Court in 2018 seeking their protections.
Despite a directive by the ‘The High Court ordering the Archaeology Department to make a list of heritage sites based on the list and despite it asking Rajuk to take measures to ensure their protection nothing has been done so far to ensure its safety.
Like most such old buildings it remains occupied by illegal squatters like a club named Mukti Khelaghar and 40 other families. After the country’s independence, the government allocated the main building of the palace as Kabi Nazrul college dormitory. What is also interesting is that Department of Archeology Directorate General Md Hannan Mia and Rajdhani Unnayan Katripakkha director (development control) Mobarak Hossain said that they had no plan to declare Mangalabash as a heritage site.
When the TSC — one of the most historically significant places in Dhaka city and Kamlapur Railway Station, yet another heritage site, are both bound for extinction it seems useless to grieve over a site which has not even been declared a heritage site. But the fact remains that very few buildings from the last two centuries are present in Dhaka — so the reasons for protecting such should be greater.
But we live in such a nation that this seems impossible. Most buildings–with the exception of a few, remain in shabby and dilapidated conditions, fit for not even the keeping of animals. Most are encroached upon by squatters. A nation which forgets its history is doomed to repeat it, for we forget the past to embrace the future. This is not the way.
