An open public hearing will be held to resolve the issue since its board of trustees want to redevelop the site into a 23-storey residential tower.

KUALA LUMPUR: Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz is all for the preservation of the iconic Vivekananda Ashram in Brickfieldss Little India here as a national heritage, claimed DAP MP M Kula Segaran.

He quoted Nazri as telling him that the need to confer heritage status on the ashram is overwhelming.

Kula and several other DAP parliamentarians, including Penang Chief Minister and Bagan representative Lim Guan Eng, held a discussion with Nazri on the issue in the Parliament lobby this week.

Kula said Nazri told him that many people, from local leaders to politicians, wanted the ashram to be preserved.

He has promised not to let the people down.

The minister assured that he would fight to have Vivekananda Ashram preserved as a heritage, said Kula in a statement here yesterday.

The DAP MP for Ipoh Barat also said that Nazri planned to call for an open public hearing to resolve the issue since the ashrams board of trustees had voiced strong objection against its preservation as a historical structure.

He said Nazri would give all parties an equal opportunity to air their views, suggestions and opinions during the hearing.

Nazri it was learnt, had expressed shock with the ashrams trustees outright rejection of the ministrys proposal to bestow heritage status on the over 110-year-old ashram.

Read more from the original source:
Nazri is all for ashram to be declared a heritage site