HERITAGE TOWNS IN KERALA
The
State government should start identifying and listing heritage towns as the
first step towards urban development planning, said chairperson of the Indian
Heritage Cities Network (IHCN) Foundation Rathi Vinay Jha IHCN is a Unesco
initiative that provides platform for sharing experience and expertise for
sustainable socio-economic and cultural development of the Indian cities. “The
role of IHCN is a catalyst-kind of facilitator by bringing in international and
national experts to disseminate information about urban development in the
context of local culture and requirements,” said Ms. Jha on the sidelines of
the Emerging Kerala 2012 meet in Kochi on Thursday, 13th September, 2012
The
Foundation currently has 22 Indian cities as members along with seven French
cities namely Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, Central Region, Chinon, La Rochelle,
Nancy and Rennes. “Some States like Rajasthan, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh
have been proactive. The State government of Karnataka has already listed six
cities for heritage conservation and is in the process of adding 11 more. This
is something the Kerala Government should also start doing.”Kochi, featuring
the heritage circle of Fort Kochi and Mattanchery, is the only member city in
IHCN Foundation and has the distinction of being the second city to enter into
a partnership for urban development with a foreign city after Udaipur in
Rajasthan.“The Karnataka Government provided IHCN with budgetary support, which
was pooled in from three different departments – urban development, culture and
tourism. That in itself shows the commitment the State government there has in
heritage conservation.”“The IHCN will not take up the implementation part of
the project. Ours is more of a consultation role, but we can bring in experts
from other countries for the local bodies. It is for the State government to
bring in statutory regulations related to listing of a city as a heritage
city.”Even though the heritage mapping process of Fort Kochi and Mattanchery
has been initiated sometime back, not much progress has been made so farto make
the next move,” said Ms. Jha.
Prof. John Kurakar
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