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Towards extinction

Kishor Dutta
BANGLADESH is crowned with the splendid archeological heritage. Over the thousand years so many dynasties have ruled this vast territory leaving their ineffaceable grandeur in giant citadels, prodigious monuments, elephantine towers and mammoth cities they established. With the passage of time the splendor of these heritages may be eclipsed, but they echo the time gone by. The historical remnants signal an historical continuity which must not end with the present generation but must be preserved for our progeny. The Apex Gourt therefore directed the authorities concerned to preserve and protect the national heritage [BAPAv Bangladesh 58 DLR441|.
Although numerous literary and epigraphic records testify to the existence of a large number of cities, fortified palaces, temples, monasteries and stupas - with the splendor of such structure being described as ' high as mountain peaks'- there are alas no vestiges of any such grandiose edifice surviving ground today. Most of them perished due to cataclysmic natural catastrophes and if few of them survived the frenzied wrath of nature, they had not been spared by the iconoclastic fury of vandals.
The decrepit shrine of Ram Saha featured by Life Style under the title 'In grand remembrance' depicts the traumatic vulnerability of the heritage sites against the predatory foes. Flouting the slumbering government machineries, the influential quarter has swooped upon the hapless shrine. Also divested it of its adjacent vacant land by grabbing thereof. The senseless encroachment has reduced the once glittering shrine to a gloomy abode of ghosts. The govern-
ment must act with alacrity to restore the occupied land of the shrine as it has a constitutional obligation to presence the heritage [Article- 241. The Apex Court observed that Article 24 though unenforceable bestows upon the government a sacrosanct obligation to protect and preserve the national heritage [Abul Kashem v Bangladesh 64 DLR 286]
Heritage of cities in particular are endangered with impending obliteration due to unplanned urbanization and illegal encroachment upon them. To stave off this ill-designed urbanization the Town Improvement Act 1953 has authored a pragmatic strategy of Master Plan which requires all future construction to be in consonance with the Plan [Section -74). The first ever Master Plan was prepared in 1959. The latest Master Plan namely Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan was formulated in 1995. In pursuance of the latest Master Plan, Detailed Area Plan (DAP) has been forged. Para-3.3.13 of this DAP guarantees the preservation and protection of the heritage.
Lately the government has piloted Dhaka Megacity Building (Construction, Development, Preservation and Removal) Rule 2008 of which Rule 61 deals with the preservation of the heritage. The Rule 61 obliges the authority concerned to take some enabling steps such as-
• Making a list of heritage sites
• Non-demolition and alteration of the listed heritage without sanction from appropriate authority
• No development work within the 250 radius of an antiquity
• Acquisition of the heritage sites for public purpose if necessary
• Declaration of protected heritage.
The vast realm of the statutory laws of Bangladesh contains single enactment namely the Antiquities Act 1968 to deal with the preservation and protection of Antiquity. Section 2(c) of the Act defines antiquity which includes any ancient site of historical, ethnographical, anthropological or military or scientific interest. The Act has envisioned an Advisory Committee to decide whether any product, object or site is an antiquity |Section-3|. Where any antiquity is found ownerless, the Director shall take steps for the custody, preservation and protection of it [Section-5 ].
The government may acquire any land containing any antiquity under the Land Acquisition Act 1894 |Section-7]. This power of acquisition extends to the acquisition of any religious site of historical importance [Ismail Faruqui v Union of India AIR
1995]. The government may declare any antiquity to be a protected antiquity [Section -10]. None is entitled to destroy or alter any antiquity in which government has taken any interest [Section- 19|. The Director may take lease or accept a gift or bequest of antiquity and in case of sale of antiquity is entitled to exercise the right of pre-emption with respect to such antiquity [Section - 8 & 91.
The judiciary embittered by the executive's failure in protecting the heritage sites has come forward to safeguard the national heritage against incessant encroachment upon them. The Apex Court is of the opinion that the court cannot remain silent by-stander while the national heritages are being annihilated. Recently the Supreme Court has thwarted the malicious intrusion by construction upon the Lalbagh Fort [Abul Kashem v Bangladesh 64 DLR 286|." In another instance interested quarters backed by political elites were found grabbing the periphery of historic Mahasthangar Monument. The Apex Court directed immediate restoration of the occupied land and protection of the splendid monument [HRPB v Bangladesh, Writ Petition No- 9592 of2010].
The Supreme Court also resisted the whimsical initiative of the government to build residential palaces upon land earmarked for recreation in derogation of Louis Kahn's plan of national assembly which the court termed part of our national heritage to be protected from distortion.[BAPA v Bangladesh 58 DLR 4411. It is high time that a concerted endeavor shall be made to preserve all the heritage which we are left with.’