in wake of the recent movement to protect irrum manzil toi looks at hyderabads heritage wealth and the laws governing them unfortunately a sizeable chunk of these ancient structures has been lost over the years owing to various modifications made to the rulebookwhat are the structures under the archaeological survey of indias purviewmonuments charminar and golconda fort inner fort and outer fortification walls museum archaeological museum kondapur these monuments are protected under the ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act 1958what is the loophole in this regulationin 2018 the act was amended to allow construction of public infrastructure such as highways bridges and airports within 100 metres of monuments protected by the asi the original act prohibited thiswhat are the monuments under the department of heritage telanganas purviewwhile there were at least 42 monuments on this list until a few years ago the updated list pegs the figure at 24 this includes armenian cemetery badshahi ashur khana built by mohd quli qutb shah british residency koti womens college dargah hazrat syed shah raziuddin dargah hazrath saidanimaasaheba gunfoundry hakims tomb khairat khans tomb khairati begums tomb and mosque khazana building kulsum begum mosque mecca masjid mia muskhs mosque monds raymonds oblisk this is the last resting place of michel jochim maria musheerabad mosque old gate of dabirpura old idgah qutb shahi tombs shaikpet mosque and sarai shamsheer kota sir ronald ross building sri chennakesava swamy temple taramati baradari and premamati mosque golconda mohammad nagar and toli masjidvictoria memorialthere are also five museums state museum hyderabad heritage museum gunfoundry khazana building museum multipurpose cultural complex and qutb shahi tombs museumwhat are the rules governing these monumentsafter abolishing previous regulations the state government came up with a new act in 2017 the telangana heritage protection preservation conservation and maintenance act as part of this act three committees have been constituted at the state district and local levelthe statelevel committee is headed by chief secretary secretaries of municipal administration education finance tourism and culture are members while director heritage telangana is member convenerat the district level the respective district collector is the chairperson of the committee with the superintendent of police joint collector district forest officer district education officer an officer looking after tourism and district town and country planning officer as members assistant director archaeology is the memberconvenorthere is also a greater hyderabad heritage and precincts committee comprising commissioner ghmchmda as chairman and cochairman and commissioner of police hyderabad cyberabad rachakonda metropolitan commissioner hmda commissionerdirector tourism collectors hyderabad ranga reddy medchal as members along with a host of other districtlevel officers deputy director archaeology and museums is the member convenermaintenance of these monuments is the prerogative of the state governmentwhat are the loopholes in this regulationwhile these committees are expected to have two independent experts from archaeology heritage and history background none has been appointed conservationists say it is a cause for concern as it leaves no room for dissentwhat were the structures protected under regulation 13 of the erstwhile