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Registered with the Reg. No. TN/CH(C)/374/15-17 Registrar of Newspapers Licenced to post without prepayment for India under R.N.I. 53640/91 Licence No. TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-506/15-17 Publication: 15th & 28th of every month Rs. 5 per copy (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI INSIDE • Short ‘N’ Snappy • Book club culture • The great street • Madras Week programmes • The High Court’s home Vol. XXVII No. 8 MUSINGS August 1-15, 2017 Govt. trying to kill our waterways? (By The Editor) n paper it is all there – our State is committed to protecting Oits waterways. It is forever in river-cleaning mode, spending billions of taxpayers’ money for this and all the while its own agencies, departments and undertakings continue to pollute and impede the rivers as much as they can. This is the feeling that you get when you read the recent orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) when it came down heavily on State-owned The new State VIP Guest House mimicking the Sydney Opera House. power utilities for continuing to pollute the city’s waterways. It was in June that the NGT had first taken note of the con- tinued pollution of the Tasteless mimicry in heritage area Buckingham Canal and the n addition to the architec- Secretariat-now-hospital build- become the equivalent of the decisions on designs of new Kosasthalayar River, chiefly by Atural landscape of ing has been cause for disap- original. They only invite deri- public buildings may often lie the indiscriminate dumping of Chennai is a structure that has pointment – not over the pub- sive comparisons. Why this in- with a relatively lower level of fly ash by the TANGEDCO- emerged in Government lic purpose that it serves but congruous imitation in an area the bureaucracy and, as such, it controlled North Chennai (Omandurar) Estate, next to over the insensitivity of putting where enough architectural in- is too much to expect heritage Thermal Power Station the new Kalaivanar Arangam, to up a building of such monstrous spiration is available from the sensitivity. Some broad regula- (NCTPS). The offending Gov- serve as State VIP Guest House. proportions in a historical spot, Khalsa Mahal, the Humayun tion for surroundings of listed ernment department had been The elevation is touted as hav- a prime location in South India. Mahal, and the old colonial clusters of heritage structures asked to dredge the rivers and ing been modelled on the world It is of a design devoid of art and buildings in the neighbour- and monuments and prior remove all the debris. This was renowned Sydney Opera grace and totally at variance hood? clearance of the design of new duly done. But immediately House, abutting the Sydney with colonial style buildings and structures seems necessary. thereafter, the NCTPS resumed harbour in Australia! historical structures of Indo- When a building or cluster of discharging of fly ash into the The entire erstwhile Gov- Saracenic architecture in the G by A Special buildings is listed as heritage, as rivers. According to environ- ernment Estate, called the neighbourhood. To some ex- Correspondent part of a heritage code, and is mental activists, over 300 acres Omandurar Estate, now has tent, the new Kalaivanar incorporated into the local of the Ennore Creek area are many new structures, of course, Arangam has attempted to in- zoning plan, compliance should now covered by fly ash and dominated by the mammoth corporate ancient temple style Heritage conservation automatically apply to sur- other debris. Incensed at this, fortress-like structure originally and Dravidian architectural rounding buildings and spaces the NGT has asked the NCTPS through restoration and protec- meant to house the Secretariat features to keep up with the cul- tion of ancient structures and within a specified radius of the to stop the discharge of ash but subsequently made by a tural character of this area. declared site. within a week or face closure of their sites is only one aspect. successor government into a The latest addition is a pur- When several major heritage The Handbook of Conserva- the plant in entirety. multi-speciality hospital. poseless, swanky, pathetic imi- tion of Heritage Buildings pub- We are sure that in keeping structures and styles are pre- To heritage lovers and nos- tation of the Sydney Opera dominant in an area – as in the lished by the CPWD in fact with our tradition of being best talgic Chennai residents, the House. Imitations never recognises this principle of heri- while in fire-fighting mode, the Estate area – the neighbour- hood is endowed with a heritage tage atmosphere. “The Heri- plant officials will scramble and tage comprises archaeological claim to have plugged the leaks atmosphere and character ac- quired over several generations sites, remains, ruins, and monu- at the end of the week. But ments protected by the Ar- what of the long term? There is through history. As such, heri- tage neighbourhoods need to chaeological Survey of India every likelihood that the dump- (ASI) and their counterparts in ing will resume within a few be defended as much as specific structures and sites. Ideally, the States, and also a large months once the NGT has its number of unprotected build- attention diverted to other is- private and public agencies should voluntarily desist from ings, groups of buildings, sues. It is a well-known fact that neighbourhoods, and public most of the pipelines that carry designing new structures that are out of character with the spaces including landscapes and effluents and waste from the natural features which provide NCTPS are more than 25 years surrounding atmosphere. But voluntary restraint to avoid character and distinctive iden- old and so cannot be in any way tity to cities”, (emphasis leak-proof on a long-term basis. violation of a heritage atmo- sphere cannot be depended added). (Continued on page 2) Sydney Opera House, a ‘model’ for our PWD? upon. Responsibility for (Continued on page 2) CMYK 2 MADRAS MUSINGS August 1-15, 2017 Government From walkers’ paradise trying to kill to battlefield ave you heard of the Boat short, the whole place looks that the good local is at the lo- HClub area, Chief? Like like a battleground. cal bar, so kindly provided by our waterways? Hamelin Town in Brunswick, But, as MMM, noticed, the the Government. There he has to quote from the poem on the walkers are a hardy lot. They elevated himself and is now (Continued from page 1) buildings cutting off entire sec- Pied Piper from the same city, have decided to continue walk- musing from on high, about tions of the waterway. the Boat Club area has the ing on whatever little road is life. If this is the way a Govern- river Adyar on the southern left. The numbers have not re- There is also another arena ment agency responds to a We also have repeated an- side and a pleasanter spot you duced one bit and even those that has apparently consumed court order and if this is the way nouncements of restoration of never spied. You know the from Anna Nagar are still com- Tamilian time – a reality show. it treats national resources such the Canal to “its former glory”. place – where in summer the muting on a daily basis, rather Titled Bigg Boss (yes, with two as rivers, then what kind of an We are not aware of what that river lies at the bottom of the in the manner of wild geese g’s), it is a hand me down from example is it setting to private means exactly but the latest an- road and there is a boat club at that fly with the moon on their the developed countries of the agencies? India is a signatory to nouncement, made in 2016, the end of it. En route are wings. And all these immi- world, and having done its the Ramsar Agreement that was for a restoration plan cost- homes of several of ’em toffs. grants to the area bring their time in various Indian lan- aims to protect water bodies. ing Rs. 3,000 crore, to be taken And then in winter the river cars, which have to be parked guages has now come to up at the national level and rises until the road is at the on the few flat spaces still left, Tamil. World Star, he of Lotus This is “an intergovernmental bottom of the river and the between the trenches and the Smile, is hosting it. And by treaty that embodies the com- spent across all the States toffs referred to above club to- bobbins. The space left for way of gathering viewership mitments of its member coun- through which the Canal flows. gether, procure boats, and walking is down to a bare mini- has made some remarks about tries to maintain the ecological If organisations such as nimbly row away to safety. mum, but that has not pre- the Ministers in Government. character of their Wetlands of TANGEDCO continue to pol- During the days when the vented the walkers from walk- The public servants referred to International Importance and lute the waterway, then how river resumes being its placid ing, the commandoes from (at least that is what they said to plan for the wise use, or sus- can such enormous projects for self, this area is what is known commandeering the place for they were wanting to be when tainable use, of all of the wet- improvement make any impact? as a walkers’ paradise. You will running, and vehicular life they came campaigning) have lands in their territories,” to find people walking briskly from hogging entire roads.

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