Patna, Jul 29 (PTI) Bulldozers have pulled down the Dutch-era district engineer’s office building in the Patna Collectorate campus as part of a redevelopment project, even as the fate of a heritage vault and a vintage clock housed in its two rooms is currently unknown.
On Friday, a massive pile of bricks and dismantled iron beams lay deposited on the site of the landmark structure on the banks of the River Ganga, with labourers saying the massive central portion of the iconic structure was demolished a couple of days ago.
Barely two rooms in its small west wing, one of which houses an antique hanging skylight has been left standing, bringing another chapter of Patna’s era to an end. The building’s elongated east wing was demolished on July 3 to make way for the new Collectorate complex.
The demolition took place, ironically, nearly two weeks after a team of experts from the Patna Museum had visited the Patna Collectorate demolition site on July 13 and inspected an over-a-century-old steamroller made by a British company, the unique skylight and the vintage safety vault housed in a room of the district engineer’s office building in its sprawling campus.
A vintage clock was mounted on a wall in one of the rooms on one end of the now-demolished central portion of the building while the colonial-era safety vault was embedded in a room on its other end.
Heritage lovers from various parts of the country on Friday expressed fear that the two antique items — safety vault ad clock — might have been buried, and blamed it on “bureaucratic delay” on part of the museum authorities, saying not a single vintage item has been recovered even though the demolition began mid-May and its team inspection happened over two week ago.
From Patna to Kolkata and Delhi to Haryana, history aficionados and antiquity experts had appealed 10 days ago to the museum authorities to “urgently shift” the steam road roller, manufactured by John Fowler and Co. of Leeds, England, and other vintage items away from the demolition site of the historic Patna Collectorate.
Abhishek Ray, Kolkata-based heritage enthusiast, who has hunted many rare vintage relics in the past several years in various cities in the country, said, “I am shocked that nothing has been rescued from the demolition site yet. What are museum authorities waiting for? We don’t even know the fate of these old items, whether these were moved out or got buried.” “Patna Museum is a prestigious institution and isn’t it the job of its officials to preserve our heritage. The vintage vault and other items from the Collectorate demolition site should have been shifted by now, but this lapse has happened due to bureaucratic delay. It is very sad, authorities don’t accord priority to heritage, more so when it is threatened,” he alleged.
A senior official at Patna Museum, who was part of the inspection team that had visited the Collectorate on July 13, when asked about the vintage safety vault, said, “I was not aware that the building’s portion in which it was housed has been demolished. But the building belonged to Patna District Board, and we are not aware as to the fate of the safety vault or the clock.” “However, we are making efforts to rescue the road roller and the old skylight and shift them to the museum as soon as possible. A technical staff and a person from a hydraulic crane operating firm visited the site on Wednesday to assess the weight of the road roller and other logistic details,” he said.
The technical staff of the museum said the building has been demolished, barring just the two rooms, situated near the road roller.
Multiple phone calls and text messages to Patna District Board chairperson Kumari Stuti did not elicit any response.
Despite interest shown by the museum authorities in recovering some of the old items, the road roller is still languishing in an open area in front of the west wing of the now-demolished district engineer’s office building.
Patna-based heritage activist Shailesh Kumar, part of the citizen-led initiative Save Historic Patna Collectorate that fought for six years since 2016 to save the landmark from demolition, asked “if heritage was on the government’s priority list at all”.
“Any other noted museum would have never let this happen. The bureaucratic inertia and the delay it causes is not surprising, but it’s been over two months since the demolition began. What are they doing? We have lost the buildings, but can we at least save these vintage items for posterity,” he said.
On May 13 this year, the Supreme Court had rejected a plea by heritage body INTACH, which was fighting a legal battle since 2019 to save the historic landmark from demolition, paving the way for the demolition of the Patna Collectorate complex, triggering a wave of grief among heritage lovers in India and abroad.
A museum inspection team member had earlier said that during their first visit over two weeks ago, some rooms were found locked, and had alleged that no district board staff had opened them despite being informed about their visit.
“There are two rooms in the district engineer’s office building, which were found locked. A vintage clock is mounted on a wall in one of these rooms. So, we could not see it. The clock is mentioned in a letter sent by the Board to authorities earlier,” he had said. PTI KND SMN SMN
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