10 months after inauguration, Circuit House not operational

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 26

New 22-room Circuit House of Dharamsala was inaugurated by the former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh in the year 2017. Now even about 10 months of its inauguration, it has not been made operational. Sources here said that it has been non operational as there was no staff to run it.

A proposal has been sent to the state government to either hand over the Circuit House to the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC) or to the PWD Department.

Deputy Commissioner Kangra Sandeep Kumar, when contacted, said proposals were sought from both the HPTDC and the PWD for running the 22-room Circuit House. The HPTDC has demanded about Rs 4.5 lakh per month from the state government to run the Circuit House on pattern of Himachal Bhavans being run in Chandigarh and Delhi. Under this scheme 10 out of 22 rooms would be available on the disposal of the state government, while the rest would be rented out by the HPTDC on commercial basis.

On the other hand, the PWD that was maintaining the old PWD has demanded about Rs 1.5 lakh per month for maintaining it. “We have sent both the proposals to the state government”, Sandeep Kumar said.

The new Circuit House was constructed because of the winter session of Himachal Assembly for seven days. During the session MLAs and bureaucrats come to Dharamsala and shortage of official accommodation for visiting dignitaries was always felt.

A new secretariat was also constructed at Dharamsala during the stint of the previous BJP in the state. The secretariat was constructed with an idea that it would house the offices of all the ministers who would be available to people from lower areas of the state during the winter months. However, the building presently only houses the Chief Minister’s office. A floor of the secretariat has been handed over to the Vigilance Department while some portion of building was lying vacant. No funds are available with the district administration to maintain the secretariat as it is not under any particular department. At present, the office of the deputy commissioner Kangra was spending funds to maintain the Dharamsala secretariat.