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| Renovation of Jammu's Heritage Projects: Dream or Whim? | | | Raman Sharma
It was not less than a
shock when the Mubarak
Mandi Jammu Heritage Society served 3-pages reply on my Right to Information query regarding present status of the ongoing construction work there on the famous historic monument of Dogra Culture, the Mubarak Mandi Heritage Project. Though it was soothing to learn that the entire project would involve a huge amount of Rs. 300 Crore which obviously meant that the government was sincere in renovating these old monuments. But it was more distressing when the reply also stated that there was no time limit fixed for the completion of this project and till now only 1 percent amount of the estimated project has been spent so far. The renovation project that was commissioned in October-2008 and during last 4 years the society has spent only Rs 3.52 crores out of Rs. 300 crore. With this logic and calculation and if the pace of work continues to be in the same motion than this project would take around 400 years till completion. The Society in its reply has also informed that 4 governing body meetings have been convened under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister besides 20 meetings of the executive committee of the MMJHS. But the most important question remains the same that what did the Chairman and other members did in the meeting and are they also aware of this fact that there is no time limit fixed for this project ? . And if no time limit is fixed then on what basis amount of Rs. 300 crore been estimated. There is lot of confusion and the government and the society both should clear the air. After the publication of this news in the media, the people of the state and especially from the Jammu region are sensing foul and blaming the government for the chaos. Already under profit hotel industry of Jammu has criticized the state government and demanded that time limit must be fixed for such projects, similarly CAG report tabled on the floor of the house showed that the development of the oldest Raghunath Bazaar of the Jammu city as a heritage project too has been tardy. Initial estimated cost of the Ragunath Bazar project was Rs. 6.62 crore in 2009-10 and till March 2011 only s. 1.06 crore had been spent even though Rs. 2.27 crore had been released by the state government in that period for it. These dream projects of Jammu region appeared to be whim. There is an immediate need to speed up the pace of works on this historic monuments because delay escalates the costs. Experts feel that no individual person should be allowed for a long to continue to remain associated a single project because this may lead to corruption and the personal interests of the individual. The people of Jammu region should also wake up and ask the government and the concerned agencies about the pending projects because after all these belongs to us and if we do not take care who else would keep an eye and take care of our own historic monuments.
--(Raman Sharma is an RTI activist and can be reached [a] [email protected].) |
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