Gurmeet Rai, Director, Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative has demanded immediate removal of Parvinder Singh Pasricha (pictured left) from the President of Management committee of SachKhand Hazur Sahib Naded (Maharashtra) as latter failed to protect heritage status of Gurdwara SachKhand Hazur sahib. 

In an interview over phone from New Delhi Gurmeet Rai, Top most Conservation Architect of India, said that how a serving officer can justify the management of Gurdwara as he has many compulsions for the state. Parvinder Singh Pasricha, an IPS officer and was also serving DGP of Maharashtra.

Millions of devotees are expected to visit Hazur Sahib where Guru Gobind made Guru Granth Sahib the eternal living guru before he died in 1708. The demolition and construction work underway around Hazur Sahib to build visitors' pavilions, in preparation for the 300-year anniversary of the guruship of the Guru Granth Sahib next year. 

Rai said   "The threat to the historical built heritage has started as the Gurdwara and state authorities have started to bulldoze monuments in reparation for modern buildings …The proposed plan lacks adequate sensitivity to the heritage buildings…"

She said that a team of conservation architects and urban designers visited the site slated for construction of large buildings and wide-open spaces, referred to as a Galiyara, around the inner sanctum. They examined historic buildings within the precinct of Hazur Sahib and noted the ones threatened to be demolished. 

Ramgarhia Bunga – Rai called it "a unique example of vernacular architecture." It is threatened by demolition and digging too close to its structure. The structure was built during the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to provide accommodation to the masons who arrived from Punjab to build the inner sanctum of Hazur Sahib with the offerings sent by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. 

Some structures of unknown significance, in close proximity to the inner sanctum of Hazur Sahib, were already demolished, and a food storage building, called Modikhana, was being demolished during her December visit, said Rai. Other heritage structures, she said, were being lost due to neglect. 

When asked that have she approached Pasricha about it she said a team of conservation architects did visit the site on December 21, alongwith Amandeep Singh, author, historian and co-founder of the United Kingdom Punjab Heritage Association. She did not meet with Parvinder Singh, but they met with Shri Mowaplar, a local official, and other authorities, Rai said. 

"When I last spoke to PS Pasricha over Phone he was adamant that the bunga was not worth saving and that it would come down, but the owners would be compensated with an equivalent parcel of land. He denied knowledge of most other things. Since then, he stated to me that none of the buildings will be touched. I find him altogether a contrary and inconsistent," She said.

"Despite their assertions about love of history, he simply does not understand that the very buildings he is planning to bulldoze are of important historical value."