The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) is asking the National Heritage Department to step in save Brickfields’ iconic Vivekananda Ashram from being made a part of a redevelopment project.
Hindraf chair P Waytha Moorthy said in a press statement that the department should take immediate steps to acquire and preserve the building, which 110 years old.
The ashram was classified as a heritage building in Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) Structure Plan, gazetted in 2004.
Moorthy noted that the National Heritage Act authorised the Comissioner of Heritage to designate a site as having heritage value and to acquire it for preservation purposes.
The Star Online reports that Hindraf is of the opinion the ashram should be preserved in its original form “because of its importance in our history; its social and cultural associations; and its richness in exhibiting the diversity of the multi-cultural fabric of Malaysia”.
Here’s an artist’s illustration of what the redeveloped site would look like – the original Vivekananda Ashram building would be dwarfed by the proposed 23-storey building built around it:
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23-storey tower to be built over iconic 110-year-old ashram in Brickfields
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