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| Renovation of Hari Niwas runs into rough weather | | CM urged to probe irregularities | | Early Times report
Jammu, June 13: After evoking severe criticism from human rights defenders, the renovation of Hari Niwas palace is again in news for wrong reasons. According to informed sources, the rnovation has been deliberately delayed to benefit the cnractors.
Local contractors have urged the Chief Minister to probe the irregularities. Sources said the costs have gone up considerably during the past two years and this has been wilfly done o faour te cntractors. Nobody from the Hospitality and Protocol Department was available for comment.
The renovation of the palace was undertaken in 2009 when the government decided to turn it into a guest house to host diplomats and VVIPs from outside. The renovation work is being carried out by the Hospitality and Protocol Department. The palace was handed over to the department by virtue of an order passed by the general administration department (GAD).
The palace has had a chequered history since being used at times as a joint interrogation centre and finally making way for the headquarters of the state intelligence department, which was put at short notice before it was evicted from the former palace. The association of the parents of disappeared persons would call it Abu Gharib of Kashmir. Thousands of persons were tortured in the erstwhile palace. Some succumbed to torture and the survivors have horrifying tales to tell.
Not only have the sufferers criticized the government order, they have issued an appeal to all the embassies in New Delhi urging them not to accept official hospitality in Hari Niwas. The appeal reads: “The government has been using the erstwhile palace as a torture chamber since 1985. Thousands of souls have been tortured in it. Many of them died or have been subjected to enforced disappearance. Hundreds of bodies must have been buried in the nearby forest. Vital evidence has already been lost as the government renovated the palace recently. More then ten crores were spent to make it suitable for the former Chief Minister. You have always stood by us. You have always urged the government of India to pay due respect to human rights. And, if you choose to stay in this torture chamber, it will amount to rubbing salt into our wounds.”
Maharaja Hari Singh was cautioned against constructing the Hari Niwas Palace at the place where it stands now. He was told that the place was inauspicious. However, he did not listen and went ahead with the construction. The queen was pleased but the rule did not last long. Maharaja had to leave behind everything including the newly constructed palace. Decades later, the `democratic’ government turned the palace into a torture chamber. The prophecy of Maharaja’s astrologers had come true. The palace proved inauspicious for him as well as for the people of Kashmir. It has never offered solace to the people who lived in it willingly or unwillingly.
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