NEW DELHI, April 12: A maze of ugly illegal constructions and trash heaps encircle the grand arches of the Begumpuri mosque, the earliest example of a Jama Masjid or congregational mosque found in this country. Nobody really cares, nobody lifts a finger as the batter walls of the Tughlaq monument decay.The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had started conservation work on the mosque but they have reached nowhere. The weeds and wild grass were being removed from the central courtyard of the mosque supposedly to stop water seepage. But that remains half-done. The concrete work on the same courtyard is also half-done which has led to muddy rain-water puddles all over, damaging the site. And no plan is visible for water drainage. So the seepage continues to destroy whatever is left of the fast decaying mosque.
"The bosses at the ASI do not bother to check whether the kind of conservation they have undertaken is the desired remedy or whether they are just adding on to the problem," says conservationarchitect Nalini Thakur.
She also points out the brick structures, built some 50 years ago to give support to the ceiling. Now those support structures are also cracking.
"They are sticking to the same methodology, which is obviously incorrect,"says Thakur.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
