The Town Hall, repository of heritage. A Telegraph picture

The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has started an escrow fund exclusively for the upkeep of heritage buildings, mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said on Thursday evening at a reception organised by the civic body for Carla Contractor.

Contractor is an English academic from Bristol, who has guarded with her life the tomb of Raja Rammohun Roy, who died there on September 27, 1833, and is now interred at Arnos Vale. She is here to raise funds to restore the raja’s tomb.

Bhattacharyya said he had made an appeal for funds for the preservation of heritage and was overwhelmed with the response, having already collected Rs 30 to 40 lakh.

Asked if any decision has been taken on which buildings will be restored initially, the mayor clarified over the phone that this will be at the discretion of the heritage committee. The cheque for Rs 12 lakh, which was gifted by an individual, who wished to remain anonymous, for the restoration of the tombs of William Carey, Marshman and Ward in the Serampore cemetery, was meant for that fund.

Asked if this measure was adequate for heritage protection, historian Barun De, who is a member of the state heritage commission and also of the CMC heritage conservation committee, said he was unaware of this development.

Although it was a good beginning, he stressed that the need of the hour was taxation relief for Grade A buildings, as an incentive for the expenditure they incur.

P.T. Nair, barefoot historian of Calcutta who has kept count of practically every old building in the city, is not at all impressed. With characteristic vehemence, he says: “The CMC has no intention of preserving heritage buildings. The Town Hall was repaired, not restored. I have never been consulted on the heritage building list.”

Kamal Basu, former mayor, says Nair had started the idea of marking heritage buildings with plaques. But the house that is marked as Harish Mukherjee’s home now is actually not his. The original house had a marble plaque with inscriptions but that was removed and now a marker has been put up in front of another house, he alleged.

Shyam Chainani, Mumbai-based member of the Intach council and an activist of the Bombay Environmental Action Group, rubbished the idea of creating a fund. Chainani, who studied at the IIT Kharagpur and is a regular visitor to this city, said over the telephone: “What is needed is a regulation, as in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, which do not allow heritage buildings to be demolished without referring the case to the heritage committee. The rest is fluff.”