No takers for Zila Parishad building
Anupam Bhagria
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, June 9
Three floors of the four-storey building of Zila Parishad has been lying vacant for the past many years. No one is ready to take over it. The reason is the high rent being asked by the Zila Parishad.
Constructed in an area of about 6,000 square feet on the premises of Zila Parishad office (near the office of Vigilance Bureau), this four-storey building came into existence in 2003. Built with crores of rupees, this building was constructed within a span of four years. The construction started in 1999 and finished in 2003.
The building has four big halls. Out of these, three have been lying vacant ever since it came into existence. However one of the halls has been given on rent to Director, Punjab State Lotteries, for the last seven to eight years.
Sucha Singh Nagra, secretary of Zila Parishad, Ludhiana, said, “Each of the four halls is of an area about 6,000 square feet. At present, the rent fixed by the state government for each of the three remaining halls is Rs 1.91 lakh per month. This rent is fixed by the government as per the revenue cost of the land.”
Due to high rent, no one has shown interest in taking this office on rent. According to sources, “Different institutes and corporates like this site. But the high rent forces them to change their idea of shifting over here.”
All this is leading to a loss to state exchequer. A government officer said, “The government should think over decreasing the amount of rent of this building. Otherwise it will continue to remain vacant as it is.”
Conversion of a hall
After waiting for long, now ZiIa Parishad has decided to convert one of its big halls into a training hall. Sucha Singh Nagra said, “We are planning to convert one of the halls into a training hall to train the representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutes like panchayat samities, block samiti, panches and sarpanches, etc.”
