Spread over an area of 116 kanals of land atop the old hillock of Jammu, the sprawling Mubarak Mandi Complex, a hundred year old seat of the Dogra Kingdom, was declared Heritage Centre in 2005. Whether this declaration was in pursuit of national policy of preserving Indian heritage or a gimmick of catering to the sentiment of the people of Jammu remains a contentious issue. The reason for this inference is the non-serious attitude of the authorities in speeding up renovation and reconstruction of the heritage complex in a befitting and time bound manner. It is obvious that delaying the repair and restoration work means allowing the entire complex to remain exposed to the vagaries of nature and climatic impact. Keeping in mind the pattern of various structures comprising the complex, the State Tourism Department felt and rightly so that the only expert and genuinely competent authority to undertake the task of restoration of the complex to its original grandeur was the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), an agency that has long experience of doing this type of work.
The project pertaining to restoration of Mubarak Mandi Complex has been funded by the Union Government and 50 crore rupees were allocated for the same. Additionally 16 crore rupees were sanctioned under Mega Tourism Project out of which 3.36 crore have already been received by the State authorities. Although some patchwork has been done so far but the focus which had to be on three complexes, namely of Gadhavi Khana, Royal Court and Badi Deodi is not visible. A strange situation has developed which shows that there has been no real hard groundwork on the issue of the cost of restoration of this Complex. The Tourism Department is reported to have made the estimates of three structures mentioned above separately and forwarded the same to the ASI, Jammu, which seems to have approved the cost estimates and forward the same to Head Office of ASI in New Delhi. Now it is at the level of the Head Office that questions have been raised and the cost estimates are considered to be on the higher side. This has snowballed in to constitution of committee on the level of ASI for re-assessing the costs estimates and reconsidering entire issue in the light of cost estimates.
It is surprising to note that the case present a sordid picture of lack of coordination among the concerned agencies. The ASI constituted a Committee for reassessing the cost estimates but the Department of Tourism contends that no representative of the State from the PWD or local ASI branch was co-opted as a member of the Committee. Obviously, the ASI head office feels it has the requisite expertise and does not need consultations with outsiders. This is bizarre situation and the only outcome is that restoration work of the Mubarak Mandi Heritage Project is delayed endlessly. One fails to understand why the concerned agencies are taking the job so lightly and casually when it was declared National Heritage way back in 2005. This is not a case of discrimination. It is a case of utter lack of responsibility and total absence of urge to contribute to the cultural history of the country and the State. The people of Jammu have sentimental attachment with the Complex. After all it reflects part of their glorious history. If there are differences of perception between the ASI Head Office and its State branch, who is going to remove it? The Head Office should have stepped in at the very beginning when the project was assigned to and accepted by it.
We would urge the ASI to adopt cooperative attitude and try to make things smooth instead of creating hurdles in the path of restoration of the heritage under discussion. It is a big project and will take many years to complete. But then a beginning has to be made. The State Tourism Department is prepared to lend full cooperation in bringing the project to completion. It is unacceptable that those who are concerned with the project should play with the sentiments of the people of Jammu region.
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