PROGRESS SO FAR:
Activity & Reach Outs
1) Heritage Beku in a short while, has become a respected citizen platform for Bengaluru’s heritage soul, concern and change , with a seat at the table with the government.
2) Heritage Beku’s first online Petition to the government – kickstarted public attention on co-owning heritage as a focus area, impacted the RMP 31 https://www.change.org/p/pastforward-heritagebeku-preserve-our-bengaluru
3) The bulldozing of Krumbiegel Hall became trigger for setting up citizen initiative Heritage Beku. Several white papers and editorials on this created awareness & drummed up the need for citizen action and crowd wisdom on heritage.
4) Set up of Heritage Beku Facebook Page , Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, in addition to a closed whatsapp group for member communication
5) Multifaceted group of citizens – across planners, architects, policy makers, lawyers, former bureaucrats , historians, environmentalists, corporates, artists in Bangalore, across India and even globally spontaneously formed the group
6) Launch of Draft Revised Master Plan 2031 (ie RMP31) with over 70 pages dedicated to heritage (unlike only 3 pages in previous RMP15)
7) Massive meetings and a City wide detailed response to the RMP31 covering procedure, law, aesthetics, zone wise approach and formation of committee and city heritage group. Led By Deepti Sudhindra, Manasi Paresh Kumar & Suraj Chabria , two man months went into creating a 50 page document with inputs across all areas of city heritage, zones, committee and preservation (with global and India best practices) . The HB inputs were filed on Jan 23rd 2018, but the Master Plan itself went on hold and regrettably many of these have not been incorporated. These could have changed city heritage landscape and direction. HB petitioned for this as well. https://www.change.org/p/bda-why-no-feedback-action-on-revised-master-plan-2031-rmp31
8) Successful effort to save 3 heritage buildings and over 119 trees in the 120 year Queens Veterinary Hospital Campus , on Queens Road
9) Karnataka Tree Protection Act- Amendment – online petition https://www.change.org/p/chief-minister-karnataka-killbill-gok-ktpa-amendment-to-destroy-trees e with over 50K signatures , and tremendous push from HB Team & others resulted in the amendment being dropped- the impact is seen in 85% of the potentially lost trees still being safe in Bangalore
10)Janatha Bazar/Asiatic Building proposed demolition for a multi-storeyed mall – citizen activities, lectures, meet ups, painting and awareness building events including accessing huge RTI documentation and writing to CS, MLA in charge and others to retain the heritage building. This along with a PIL by Intach resulted in a stay.
11)Two sets of meetings organised with Chief Secretary to emphasise the need for heritage legal structure and orientation. Letter also written to PWD to ensure any work attempted by them in heritage precincts to have a heritage orientation.
12)Lansdowne/Devaraja Market Mysore- strong letters from HB also created pressure to stop the demolition
13)First time Heritage participation in IChangeMyCity- BBMP Civic Fest at Freedom Park on 14 Feb selecting Heritage Beku. As partner. Member Mason Ink organised a tremendously interactive Bengaluru Heritage walk through which impacted many especially the school children. Over 7000 footfalls
14)19th century Summer House in Cubbon Park – although restoration was done by Horticulture Department , the lack of a conservation focus resulted in a very poor restoration. A lesson to us all to ensure proper guidelines in place
15)Initiative to declare Natural Heritage site Cubbon Park a no traffic zone like Lalbagh – online petition is on https://www.change.org/p/365-day-traffic-free-cubbon-park-it-s-our-natural-heritage-central-lung-space
16)Extensive meetings with Deputy Conservator of Forests on rampant tree cutting and formation of Tree Committee. Thanks to Heritage Beku’s efforts and Forestry Department coordination, the first public consultation (on massive tree cutting planned by Metro was organised ) , setting a city wide precedent and most trees could be saved.https://www.change.org/p/cm-karnataka-leave-them-trees-alone
17)Heritage Beku worked extensively on Begur Lake destruction , bringing in various stakeholders to bear on the project.
18)Support to the heritage All Saints Church and its Sacred Grove due to Metro construction and organisation of a Heritage and BioDiversity walk there.
19)To protect natural heritage and air quality, better implementation of Supreme Court guidelines on firecrackers were further amplified via petition https://www.change.org/p/ministry-of-environment-forests-and-climate-change-strictimplementation-of-supremecourt-festive-firecracker-orders-myrighttobreathe-2ff999b8-4545-43ca-b561-4621a3b32e3d
20)Cubbon Park 7 storey High Court Annexe Oct 2019 – huge citizen uprising and concern anchored by Heritage Beku and initiated by online petition www.change.org/CubbonCourt , which crossed 20,000 signatures. Events (#HowGreenWasMyPark) and member editorials consistently shared to build awareness , created a huge impact , and underlined public opinion
21)Meetings with bureaucracy on to push for a more proactive Heritage Laws and focus on a Heritage Foundation and Education/Outreach focus. #NoMoreKrumbiegelHalls