In Ahmedabad's walled city, citizens see red over blue heritage plaques

AHMEDABAD: There is an irony playing out in the walled city of Ahmedabad which won the ‘Unseco World Heritage City’ tag in 2017. Heritage property owners are seeing red over putting covete ‘Blue Plaque’ on lines of English Heritage on their homes fearing it will adversely impact the sale and price of their centuries-old dwellings!

On eve of World Heritage Week beginning November 19, Shubangini Desai, a resident of Dhal ni Pol, had a litany of anxious questions, “Will this blue plaque affect our prospects? Do you have any clarity? Will AMC permit and pay for the repairs we wish to undertake in our house?”

Desai's concern is shared by hundreds of walled city residents who are apprehensive over affixing the ‘blue plaque’ outside their homes. This somewhere underscores major shortcoming of the civic authorities to make heritage conservation a matter of pride and allay fears of stakeholders.

AMC forced to put up posters urging citizens not to believe rumours

There are 2,236 residential properties, identifying it as listed heritage properties out of which 1,500 have affixed the ‘blue plaque’. As the fears compound, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has been forced to paste posters urging citizens not to believe in rumours. ‘The plaque only identifies the property as a heritage property and has no bearing on its sale-purchase, price or ownership rights. We request citizens not to be misguided by the contrary,’ reads the poster.

Ashish Trambadia, director of Ahmedabad World Heritage City Trust (AWHCT), said that purpose of the move is to build confidence and pride among heritage property owners. "Plaques are matter of pride, not concern. We have informed the citizen groups that the heritage status comes with incentives such as free drawing of floor plan, guidance for repairs and restoration and how to get transferable development rights (TDR),” he said. Walled city residents lament lack of awareness. Jagdip Mehta, a heritage house owner in Moto Sutharwado, said that ever since the work of affixing plaques had started in August, he has advised about 30-40 persons about the value of the blue plaque. “Many even asked us procedure to remove it – it’s far cry from the intended purpose of instilling pride among occupants,” said Mehta saying sensitization of owners by senior AMC officials would have helped the cause. Rakesh Raval, a heritage property owner, said that it’s a construct by persons with vested interests who wish to convert residential properties into commercial ones. “When many houses are being lost by commercialization, identification of the properties is a major step and should not be discouraged. Root of the issue is misinformation – citizens don’t know what the benefits of heritage property are, and it’s an irony that we are living in a world heritage city,” he said.