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In 2000, Nachhattar Singh Mavi had been appointed Secretary of the Vidhan Sabha. He was climbing the ramp of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha to go to his new office, he noticed something amiss. It later dawned on him that a huge ‘beautiful tapestry’ which covered an inside wall of the Vidhan Sabha, just near the ramp, was missing. Enquiries revealed that a committee, comprising among other the previous Vidhan Sabha Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Under Secretary, Chandigarh’s Executive Engineer and an Executive Engineer of Punjab had sold off the tapestry along with other junk. The ‘junk’ consisted of curtains and carpets, all prepared under the supervision of Chandigarh’s planner Le Corbusier. "All of these were an integral part of the complex and should have been preserved. But, that was not done," observes a Vidhan Sabha employee. In the last almost four years that he has been in office, Mavi has been trying to get a fresh tapestry hung on the empty wall from where the original was removed. The wall, incidentally, has been painted a garish pink. It took the intervention of the House Committee of the Vidhan Sabha to make the UT officials realise their mistake and make an effort to correct it. While UT babus have been slowly killing the heritage of the City, in faraway Switzerland a 10-Franc (Swiss) note, the currency of Switzerland, where Le Corbusier was born has Corbusier’s picture along with that of the Capitol Complex of Chandigarh. In France, Le Corbusier is a national hero. "When Le Corbusier was designing his buildings, he had an idea about each and every brick that was laid. Unfortunately, officials, who don’t realise the importance of protecting the city’s rich heritage, have been destroying the same. Tomorrow, it may be too late to protect the city," says M.N. Sharma, the City’s first Chief Architect, who worked closely with Corbusier when the city was being planned and built. Foreigners, most of who come to marvel at the architectural design of the city, have been carrying on a movement to get the city declared a heritage city by the UNESCO. "Despite many moves in this regard, I don’t think anything has been done," says Sharma. "Today, most of the Capitol Complex is out-of-bounds for the common man. Tourists cannot visit the Vidhan Sabha or the secretariat. It has been years since terrorism was wiped out from Punjab. Why can’t the tourists enter these places? These spots have a high tourist value. They can be real money-spinners for Chandigarh," remarks Senior Advocate Manmohan Lal Sarin. The future of the city has been the subject of many a public discourse, with a stream of letters from concerned citizens being addressed to the Editor of the British newspaper The Independent after an article in it talked of the risk that the city was at. "To infuse life, colour, vitality, movement and texture into a city, after the architects and planners have done with it, is the task of an inspired government and civic leadership. Chandigarh has lacked it," wrote author Patwant Singh, who began the debate. "Punjab and Haryana High Court is another example of how a building designed by Corbusier is being given a face-lift," is how officials put it. Without anybody realising the importance of the artifacts and heritage value of the original. When it was decided to replace the old furniture, not that there was anything wrong with it, in the courtrooms of the judges, no decision was apparently taken to preserve the original. Similarly, the majestic tapestry removed from the courtroom of the Chief Justice, was left to languish in a dark storeroom, until the public outcry. Once the UT Administration woke up to the fact that the City’s heritage could be under threat, a committee of experts for Chandigarh archives was appointed. The committee will identify heritage buildings for their upkeep. |
