The High Court on Monday issued a rule asking the authorities concerned as to why directives should not be given to renovate and preserve Birshrestha Hamidur Rahman Memorial Bhaban in Maheshpur of Jhenidah district.

Following a writ petition, an HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah also asked the housing and public works secretary and the executive engineer of Jhenidah to submit a report by March 23 on the memorial building’s present condition and what steps taken to preserve it.

The cultural affairs, and the housing and public works secretaries, the director general of Archeology Department, the deputy commissioner and executive engineer of Jhenidah and the Maheshpur UNO have been made respondents to the rule which is returnable in four weeks.

A report headlined ‘War hero memorial on the verge of collapse’ was published in an English daily on January 19.

Imtiaz Ahmed, president of a human rights organisation, filed the writ petition with the High Court attaching the report.

Barrister ABM Altaf Hossain and Kamruzzaman Kakon stood for the petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Tapos Kumar Biswas represented the state.

Altaf Hossain said if the memories of the Liberation War martyrs like Birshrestha Hamidur Rahman who sacrificed their lives for the nation could not be preserved properly, the new generation will forget the war history.

 The Memorial Bhaban was established in 1981 in Maheshpur to preserve the memory of Birshrestha Hamidur Rahman.