123 Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Thursday morning issued a stop-work notice to the management of La Martinere for Boys, halting all renovation work being carried out on the premises that have multiple heritage structures. A civic team led by its heritage committee officials had visited the school on Wednesday to inspect work being carried out without KMC's permission. After the KMC visit, repair work at La Martiniere for Boys has been halted until further communication comes from them.
The KMC action followed a complaint by the Association of La Martiniere Alumni (ALMA) that the school authorities had removed the historic steps on the southern side of the campus, engraved with names of former students, and replaced them with marble slabs.
On Wednesday, KMC officials visited the school thrice to inspect the changes made to the historic steps and the heritage structures of the school.
School secretary Supriyo Dhar said, "We have explained the need for routine repair and maintenance. There was no renovation or any new construction. The committee members told us that they will send a report on what they have seen and the steps we need to follow. Until that comes, we will not do any further work."
The 180-year-old school received a heritage blue plaque from the KMC a fortnight ago and it has been fixed to the school gate. However, Dhar claimed that they had no idea that the building was grade I heritage. "We were absolutely unaware of it, and we told as much to KMC officials. We also explained that the repairs that were carried out in the toilets and the steps were necessary as students had fallen and had been hurt," he said.
ALMA president Vishal Jhajharia contested the school's claims that the steps were unsafe and said they had written to KMC about the violation. Prior to that, ALMA had written to the school management on Oct 23 after they learnt about the southern steps being replaced with marble.
"Replacing these steps with marble erases a part of the school's living history and disconnects future students from the legacy that has shaped so many lives. We wrote them a letter, but it was ignored, so we wrote to KMC. It's good that they stopped work now because, as per law, what they did was illegal, and how could the school management be unaware of the fact? Moreover, being a builder, I know marble is more slippery than stone."