Despite protests by Charminar MLA Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri and his supporters against restoration of the historic Badshahi Ashoorkhana for the second consecutive day, the state archaeology department on Monday began preliminary work on fencing the monument’s Chabutra.
While the protesters had raised objections to the archaeology department’s plan to put up fencing around the Chabutra on Sunday, they staged a spot dharna and raised slogans against the restoration project on Monday as soon as a team from the department arrived at the 400-year-old Qutub Shahi monument.
The department is taking up restoration of the state-protected monument as per directions of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Director of state archaeology and museum Dr P. Gayatri alleged that the protest could be a ploy by the MLA and his supporters to back encroachers.
“Despite the objections we have decided to go ahead with the restoration of the historic monument as per the court’s direction,” Dr Gayatri said.
“We have started preliminary works like erecting a plaque citing the structure as a listed monument and also did foundation works for fencing the Chabutra.”
The restoration project is estimated to cost Rs 75 lakh, and in the run-up to next month’s big-ticket biodiversity conference (COP-11) the state archaeology department has started work on fencing the Chabutra, where encroachments were removed a few months ago.
The work is expected to be completed in about a year.