Office of Dhubri Municipal Board –a heritage building set to be demolished

A CORRESPONDENT

DHUBRI: One of the many heritage buildings -the office building of Dhubri Municipal Board – is being pulled down, defying the law amended in September, 2020 to protect, conserve and maintain it.

The Assam-type office building of Dhubri Municipal Board in ward no. 1 of Dhubri town is a heritage building as it was constructed in 1883. Historians say that Dhubri became subdivision of Goalpara district in 1879 and prior to it, the entire area was under Rongpur district (now in Bangladesh). However, the British built the headquarter in Dhubri instead of Goalpara due to pleasant weather, climate and scenic beauty of the River Brahmaputra.

And after 1879, many office buildings were constructed in ward no 1 of Dhubri town and the office building of Dhubri Municipal Board was one among them, historians say. When the news of demolition of the office building of Dhubri Municipal Board came to the notice of the Heritage Conservation Society of Assam, secretary of the Society, Jayanta Sarma immediately wrote to the Secretary, Culture and Archaeology, Government of Assam, on Friday urging him to take steps to save the historic building .

When contacted, Sarma expressed deep resentment over demolition of the office building and said that this should be saved and protected at any cost. "This building is not only a heritage building, its history and its legacy make it more important. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, when he was president of the Congress, visited Dhubri and he was accorded felicitation by the then board members in 1935. A group photograph of Netaji with the board members can still be seen adorning the walls of the old residences of Dhubri town," Sarma added.

Sarma, while pointing out to the law to protect heritage, said that the office building was being pulled down to build a multi-storey building, which was totally illegal as it was only last year that the Assam Heritage (Tangible) Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Maintenance Act was amended in the assembly on September 2, wherein it declared any building structure more than 75 years old as heritage building which could not be dismantled or destroyed. Violation of this Act would invite imprisonment for a term up to three years, he added.

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