A portion of Devaraja Market building, which is more than a century old, collapsed on Sunday evening. While the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) officials have reportedly taken up restoration work worth crores, historian Nanjaraj Urs says that it will be a waste of money.
Deccan Herald reported that the MCC officials noticed a crack on the side of the building which faced the Dhanwanthari Road. A bigger tragedy was averted since offices were closed as it was a holiday and people’s movement was lesser than usual.
Mayor BL Bhyrappa reportedly said that the restoration work, which might cost up to Rs 9 crore, was taken up by the MCC.
However, Urs told The News Minute that spending money on restoring an old building is only going to be a waste or that the money will end up going to the wrong pockets.
“We cannot ask the government to act every time an old building collapses except for issuing warnings to people working in and around that. Spending crores on restoration is only going to be a waste when that part of the building was barely used,” he said.
The Devaraja Market was built by the erstwhile Mysuru king, Chamaraja Wodeyar IX. It was built using lime mortar.
A similar incident had happened in 2005 when the roof of three shops in the same market caved in. Four years ago, in August 2012, a portion of the 125-year-old Lansdowne Building collapsed, killing four persons.