CM: Heritage Preservation Committee Needed
13 November 2026
Bengaluru
To,
*Shri D. K. Shivakumar*
Hon'ble Chief Minister
Government of Karnataka,
Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru
*Subject: Without a Heritage Preservation Committee, there is NO accountability — Please constitute it now and adopt Bengaluru as your own*
Dear Sir,
We write to you as concerned citizens of Bengaluru — and this time, we are not writing alone.
The demolition of the 1930 University Union building at Bengaluru City University, Palace Road, has shaken us. A building that stood for 96 years, that housed the ICHR Southern Regional Centre since 1998, that gave generations of students a reading room, a library, a place to think — was brought down in days.
And the reason given? “It was not a heritage building. It was fragile. The Civil Department decided.”
Sir, who are they kidding?
A building becomes fragile only when we make it fragile — by years of deliberate neglect, by no roof repair, no whitewash, no care, and then by calling that neglect a reason to demolish. This is not maintenance. This is murder by abandonment.
And this is why we are writing to you today with one clear demand:
*WE NEED THE HERITAGE PRESERVATION COMMITTEE. OR THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY.*
For five years, Bengaluru has had no functioning Heritage Preservation Committee. That means:
- No list. No protection. No process.
- Any department can decide on its own that a 90-year-old building is “not heritage” and demolish it overnight.
- No public notice. No expert conservation opinion. No appeal.
- No one is answerable afterwards.
Sir, without a Committee, every heritage building in this city is one JCB away from extinction. The BCU building is gone. Tomorrow it could be the Seshadripuram Police Station. The Mayo Hall precinct. The Cantonment bungalows. The old market structures. The last of old Bengaluru.
We are therefore making a public plea — not just to you, but to the conscience of this city:
*A CALL TO TOP CITIZENS & RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE OF BENGALURU*
To our industrialists, tech leaders, architects, historians, lawyers, doctors, artists, teachers, journalists, builders, and elected representatives —
If you love this city, you cannot stay silent now.
Bengaluru gave you your success, your home, your identity. It is time to give back. Join us. Lend your name. Lend your voice. Lend your influence. Sign this petition. Speak to the government. Help us restore, not demolish.
This is not about one building. This is about whether Bengaluru will be a city with a soul, or a city with only concrete.
Sir, we beg you to act now:
*1. Constitute the Heritage Preservation Committee immediately* under the Karnataka Town & Country Planning Act, with Heritage Beku, INTACH-Bengaluru, independent conservation architects, historians, and citizen representatives — not just officials.
*2. Order a moratorium* on demolition of all pre-1950 public buildings until the Committee publishes a notified heritage list.
*3. Order a public white paper* on the BCU demolition — who ordered it, on what report, and where the ICHR archives and library are today.
Sir, you have the power to be remembered as the leader who saved Bengaluru’s heritage — or the leader under whom it was lost. We believe you want to save it. Please prove it by constituting the Committee this month.
Bengaluru is waiting. History is watching.
With folded hands and full hope,
*Concerned Citizens of Bengaluru*
*SIGN THE PETITION & JOIN US:*
👉 *[ - e.g. http://change.org/SaveBengaluruHeritage]*
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