The People for Pondicherry’s Heritage has taken umbrage at BJP leader V. Saminathan’s suggestion to pull down old heritage buildings that housed schools and to construct new structures in their place.
BJP’s Puducherry general secretary V. Saminathan had on Sunday called for emulating Tamil Nadu’s example of demolishing old heritage school buildings and building new schools in their place. Likewise, the heritage buildings of Calve College School, V.O.C Government Boys Higher Secondary School and other schools here should be demolished. The People for Pondicherry’s Heritage spokesperson Kakoli Banerjee said Mr. Saminathan’s statement was factually incorrect as the three schools which Mr. Saminathan suggests should be demolished, the Calve College, the VOC School and the Pensionnat De Jeunes Filles are definitely not in a “highly dilapidated condition” as had been certified by experts from IIT Chennai in their recent report.
Also, while giving example of Tamil Nadu giving orders to demolish “old heritage school buildings” he had chosen to ignore the fact that in recent years much has been done in Tamil Nadu for restoring heritage as seen in the cases of the Ripon Building and Victoria Public Hall. In fact, Dr. S. Suresh, the Tamil Nadu State convener of INTACH, has in response to the BJP leader’s call made it clear “that many buildings owned by the Government in Tamil Nadu have been restored according to international standards of conservation in recent years.”
Saminathan’s statement is factually incorrect as the three schools are definitely not in a “highly dilapidated condition,” says Kakoli Banerjee
