Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar has cautioned ministries located in the North and South Block secretariat to preserve the heritage structures. The Cabinet passed a resolution recently saying that in future, all alterations and repairs must first be cleared by a special CPWD advisory committee. Two conservation audit committees will ensure that the advisory committee’s guidelines are followed.

Over the years, government departments have made all sorts of structural alterations in the historic buildings designed by Herbert Baker. Many of the original stone grills and carvings have been removed. It is suspected that some babus have even spirited away the priceless colonial fittings and sold them. In the last government, Anand Sharma as MoS in the Ministry of External Affairs had tried to raise awareness about the shabby state of sections of South Block but to no avail. Some suspect that the government’s sudden overdrive on the preservation of the two secretarial blocks is because Sonia Gandhi has taken a personal interest in the matter.

Noblesse oblige missing

D Purandeshwari, Minister of State for HRD, travelled with Prince Charles and his wife, the former Camilla Parker Bowles, in a horse-driven buggy from the Windsor railway station to historic Windsor Castle, where the queen was hosting a reception for President Pratibha Patil. While the prince graciously chatted with his Indian guest, Camilla spoke only to her husband. A keen horsewoman and hunter, Camilla perhaps felt she had little in common with Purandeshwari. But there were inevitably comparisons with her predecessor, Princess Di, who had the extraordinary gift of charming every visitor to the palace.

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