Established in 1910 with the donations of locals, six old buildings of the first public hospital of Barishal division are en route to being torn down.

Demolition work of  the old buildings has been going on since last week. However, many residents believe that the authorities are ignoring the history and heritage of the structures, by choosing demolition, instead of preserving the landmark through renovation.

Namely, these buildings are the Chandra Nath Ward, Jagat Chandra Male Paying Ward, Muktakeshi Female Paying Ward, Cholera ward and the Old diarrhoea ward.

 The plaque in front of the hospital displays that Lieutenant Governor Sir Lancelot Hare laid its foundation on December 5, 1910. On July 13, 1912, Lord Carmichael, governor of Bengal, had inaugurated the hospital building. Indranath Dutta of Baisari in Barishal also built a labour ward in the name of his mother Golkamoni there in 1925.

 In 1933, Ishwar Chandra Sen established the Alokmoni Female Ward. Three years later, Kali Chandra had built the Shashimukhi Operation Theater. In the same year, 1936, Gyan Chandra Ghosh Dastidar built the cholera ward. In 1938, Zamindar Binoy Gupta built the Jagat Chandra Paying Female Ward after his father's name and Barrister Nalini Gupta built a Women's Paying Ward in remembrance of his mother, Muktakeshi.

On Friday, this correspondent visited the site and found the roofs of two hospital buildings at the brink of collapsing.  The nearly 100-year-old white stone sculpture of Muktakeshi in the Muktakeshi Female Paying Ward was in line to be demolished. Donor name plates had been left out in the open.

Shah Sajeda, the convener of the Sacheton Nagorik  Committee, said, "Although the hospital was built in 1910, most of its buildings were built in 1938, which, if properly renovated, would make it usable."

The hospital's present resident medical officer, Dr Malay Krishna Baral, said, "We have taken pictures and videos of the old building structures, which will be installed in the new building. A multi-storied building with 250 beds will be constructed here, after which, we will place these name plates in a room."

 Civil Surgeon Dr Monowar Hossain informed that the construction work of the new building will start in two months. He added that the cost of the demolition of the six building has stood at approximately Tk 17 lakh .

"The twelve-storey building will be constructed here, since, there was no separate space to construct the new building. We're doing this to increase our scope of development works," said Dr Monowar.

Shubhankar Chakraborty, vice president of Barishal Sangiskritik Sangathan Samonoy Parishad, said, "We've demanded [to the authorities] for the preservation of the old building's structural design along with incorporating the name plates and sculptures while constructing  the new building."