Revision as of 18:16, 11 July 2016

Hardayal Municipal Library, Chandni Chowk

The Times of India, Jun 13 2016

Richi Verma

At 100, lifeline for city's oldest library

The Hardayal Municipal Library had shifted to its present location at Chandni Chowk in 1916 with all its furniture. Now, its centenary bash would see a major conservation exercise to preserve the thousands of old and rare books.

Intach is spearheading this exercise. “The library houses one of the country's finest collections of antiquarian books, including gold illuminated translations of Hindu and Muslim religious works as well as a 1677 edition of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World. In all, there are over 8,000 rare books--potentially worth millions--from a stock of 1,70,000. The oldest book in the Library is A Relation of Some Years Travaile Beginning in 1626 by Thomas Hardy Esquire, published by Willaim Stansby and Jacob Bloome in 1634,“ said an official.

The conservation of books would be handled by Intach's material heritage division. The collection is at present stored in iron racks and almirahs, and preliminary visual examinations showed that the books were in a very deteriorated state and in urgent need of conservation. “There is no proper ventilation; humidity levels are very high; the place is musty and covered with dust and mildew. Micro-biological growth and termite and other insect infestation has damaged the collection,“ said an official.

Experts said that an understanding of why and how printed books and archival materials de teriorate would help understand the need for conservation. “The enemies of books and paper records, in addition to fire and water damage usually associated with disasters, are heat and humidity, light and ultra-violet energy, insects, rodents, fungi, oxygen, and acid,“ said an official.

Conservation would be preceded by a comprehensive survey and identification of items needing treatment, which would then be graded on the level of treatment required. Methods would be proposed later. The expert team would also give suggestions on storage and display . “The plan is to go for digitisation for as many books as possible, but there are some rare books which we might not be able to digitise if they are in a very fragile condition. The condition of each book would depend on whether it would be just preserved or digitised as well. This would be an extensive exercise,“ said a source.

The library would float a digitisation tender later this year. LG Najeeb Jung has already ap proved a Rs 3 crore grant to restore the library, which will be executed under DDA's Delhi Urban Heritage Foundation. “The Hardayal library is in urgent need of some intervention, and we have been asking the municipal bodies to do something for a long time. Finally, an MoU is going to be signed between Intach and DDA to preserve it. Intach would do the conservation work on the books and the building while DDA would fund it. The library belongs to everyone and needs to be protected for future generations.We have grand plans for celebrating hundred years in December this year and are planning an event involving heritage libraries all over the world,“ said library secretary Shobha Vijender.

Hasthsal Minar, Uttam Nagar

The Times of India, Aug 22 2015

The minar in Hasthsal village, Delhi; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Aug 22 2015

Richi Verma

Shah Jahan's Qutub replica at risk of becoming history

For the residents of Hasthsal Village in Uttam Nagar, west Delhi, their minar is bigger than the Qutub. Local bias aside, Hasthsal Minar, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan around 1650 AD, is a fairly impressive monument in its own right. It does not have the Qutub's superlative heft and height, nor the ornate balconies and calligraphic panels, but then it wasn't a victory tower meant to symbolize the emperor's might. Rather, it was a vantage point from which he could hunt wild animals on excursions out of his new capital, Shahjahanabad. Although now Hasthsal Minar has four storeys, conservationists say it had five when new and was topped by a domed chhatri just like the Qutub (the latter lost its chhatri in the earthquake of 1803). Both minars are faced with red sandstone, although the Qutub rises on thick walls of rubble and mortar while Hasthsal Minar has brick walls.

Both minars have spiral stairways leading to the top and doorways at each level. And like the Qutub's first level, the three upper levels of Hasthsal Minar are decorated with alternating angular and semi-circu lar `flutings'. For all these reasons, conservation body Intach assigns the minar archaeological value `A'.

Yet, this minar is now a picture of neglect. At 17 me tres high, it is only slightly taller than a four-storey building and in danger of being curtained off by the rising houses. Hemmed in from all sides, it can be reached only by a narrow lane past shacks and cattle sheds. Garbage and construction waste are piled up on its lower platform that has been completely taken over by the villagers. The upper platform, which is octagonal, is crumbling.

A gate that leads to the minar is kept locked but it's possible to reach the plinth and the lower platform from any of the new houses. The new constructions on the plinth have also weakened the structure and experts say they should be removed at the earliest. Large cracks are visible on the sandstone façade.

“A chowkidar comes sometimes to clean the site, otherwise, no one is allowed inside the minar,“ said a local resident. Kavita, another resident, said, “Three generations of my fam ily have lived here and seen the monument gradually squeezed in by new constructions. Most of us know it is a very old building but have no clue about who built it and its importance.“

Shah Jahan's hunting lodge nearby has not fared much better. It was part of a much larger enclosure that's discernible only in parts now.

The minar figures on Delhi government's list of 250 unprotected monuments that need to be conserved, but it wasn't taken up in the first two phases of the project.Sources said it might be skipped in the third phase also and not get any attention before next year.

Hospitals, private

EWS quota

Some facts: EWS beds in private hospitals, Delhi; Graphic courtesy: The Times of India, Aug 06 2015

The Times of India, Aug 06 2015

DurgeshNandan Jha

Govt fails to fill EWS beds in pvt hospitals

Latest data shows one out of every three beds reserved for the poor are lying vacant even as patients queue outside government-run medical institutions to seek treatment. Some of the hospitals have not admitted a single patient under the EWS category.

The rule says that any poor patient can visit private hospitals directly for admission under EWS quota or state-run hospitals can refer their patients, if required.

The real-time update on availability of beds on the state health department's website is useless for a poor patient who have no access to internet or the confidence to fight with authorities.

Private hospitals have been found indulging in malpractices, such as denying the poor treatment citing lack of documentation or discouraging them in the name of high costs of medicines or consumables which they ought to give for free.