Anantapur district is on the verge of losing its yet another heritage building to the “development” of an ultra modern Mother and Child Hospital(MCH) block on the premises of Victoria Memorial Hospital, now known as Chest Diseases Hospital near old bus-stand (Old Town).
This will join a long list of ancient buildings and monuments that have been vanishing gradually from the cityscape.
The Taluk Kacheri or Taluk Office, for one, built in 1910, which was the first Collector’s Office and one of the finest reminiscences of the British-era constructions, was razed to ground a couple of years ago. It used to house the Collector’s Office, Rural Police Station, Sub-Treasury, Revenue Divisional Officer’s office, and the Sub Jail - all in one complex.
Widely popular
Foundation for the Victoria Memorial Hospital was laid on December 2, 1901. Popularly referred to as the Headquarters Hospital, it was the first-ever major hospital for the entire region till Government General Hospital(GGH) and Medical College were built in 1961-62.
As the new buildings started springing up, the main hospital got shifted to new building and it was called Old Hospital and later, when tuberculosis was rampant in the district, it was rechristened as a Chest Disease Hospital.
It has a 20-bed in-patient functional hospital with three doctors, five nursing staff and ten other support staff and gets 300 outpatients.
Sorry state of affairs
Member of Anantapur unit of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage(INTACH) Ramkumar told The Hindu that they have appealed to the Collectors many a time to protect the heritage of the city, but due to lack of “political willingness and patronage”, many of the important landmarks vanished from the changing skyline.
Another century-old heritage building, Peace Memorial Hall, which came up in 1919 to commemorate the end of World War I in November 1918, was converted into NTR Museum by those in power previously, Mr. Ramkumar lamented.
The members of INTACH Anantapur chapter on Monday requested District Collector Gandham Chandrudu to protect the heritage buildings and sites in the city. They appealed to the Collector to take measures for preserving Victoria Memorial Hospital.
Office-bearers A.G. Venugopal Reddy, N.R. Chandrhas Reddy and R. Ramkumar also apprised the Collector of the dilapidated conditions that the Munro Building, that houses the Collector’s office, is in.
The Collector promised to look into the issue and do the best possible.
