KOCHI: He is often called the ‘Father of Modern City of Cochin’. He was the king who brought construction of railway lines to Kerala. Policy reforms for tenants and revival of village panchayat system were all part of his contributions to make way for a modern, progressive Kerala. Sadly, the statue of the Maharaja Rama Varma XV at the Rajendra Maidan, is now struggling for space. Surrounded by tents, sheds and trees, viewing or rather discovering this statue at the park is a challenge.“The hoardings enjoy prominent slots all around the park, but no space for one of the greatest historical figures!” says director, Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (C-Hed) C Rajan. The statue holds social and economic relevance since several issues were associated with its construction. The statue of the Maharaja was unveiled in 1925 by Governor of Madras Lord Goshchen during a visit to the park. Being a historic visit, the then Maharaja had invited all the members of his Legislative Council, but one. The uninvited member happened to be renowned scholar Pandit Karuppan, who belonged to the lower-caste fisherman community. Karuppan, always loyal to the Raja was hurt and alienated. He expressed his grievance through a poem titled “Udhyanavirunnu Adhava Oru Deeevarante Aavalathi” (Park Visit or the Grievance of a Fisherman). The message of the poem was too strong for the king to ignore. From then on he made sure that official invitations were not based on casteism.Times have changed and kingdoms are off the city and so are the kings. Today the park comes under the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA). With the increasing number of events and fairs in the city, the area is always under tents.“It is inconvenient to shift the tents away since we won’t get a level space elsewhere. Besides, this park gets a whopping rent of `25,000 per day. Then who will care about the location of the tent,” says Prasanth Kumar, one of the workers involved in the construction of the tents.The GCDA, on the other hand, is more serious on the matter. “It has never been brought to our notice. Next time we will put a clause while renting out the park so that the statue is not covered altogether. The trees and other wild plants can also be cleaned up,” says GCDA Senior Town Planner, Gopalakrishna Pillai.While these may be words of reassurance, many in the field of conservation feel this only as an indication of the wider problem associated with the conservation of heritage monuments.“There are two types of heritage sites. The first type comes under the State Department of Archaeology and the other under the National Department of Archaeology. Crores and crores of money are pumped into these organisations for conservation. Those monuments which fail to come under these are left to the local bodies like GCDA. These are bodies responsible for more immediate civic issues,” C Rajan said. “There is no specific allocation of funds for conservation of heritage buildings in these bodies. Hence there is no priority for these sites, despite that many of them being historically and aesthetically significant,” he said.
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