Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 9
An American foundation has offered a help of $1 million for the restoration of Rock Garden. This was revealed today by John Maizel, one of the trustees of the Nek Chand Foundation, based in London.
Maizel held a meeting with senior officials of the Administration and informed them about the offer.
Maizel said the offer for Rock Garden had been made by the Kohler Foundation of Wisconsin, USA. Maizel said the foundation, in collaboration with the Nek Chand Foundation, had offered to carry out restoration and completion work of Rock Garden and would provide a minimum of $1 million for the project.
Maizel said after the death of Nek Chand, Rock Garden had “fallen into disrepair” and the task of conservation had become difficult.
The UT Administration and the Rock Garden Society were doing their best, but the task was so huge that it required expert intervention. Maizel said the Kohler Foundation had restored the garden of sculptures and done similar work across the USA, and this was the first time that it had shown interest in something outside the country.
The Kohler Foundation has proposed that it should be allowed to train artisans from Chandigarh in conservation methods so that these people can carry out such work at Rock Garden in the future.
HK Lakhanpal, another trustee of the Nek Chand Foundation, said they had offered the help and a final decision in this regard would be taken after a detailed discussion.
Not acceptable, says UT Home Secy
- UT Home Secretary Arun Kumar Gupta, chairman of the Rock Garden Society, said the Nek Chand Foundation had approached them regarding the offer, but the conditions of the foundation were not acceptable.
- He said the foundation wanted to take over the ownership rights for two years and also wanted to run Rock Garden along with the society in future. He said the UT could accept experts’ help in the restoration of sculptures, but without any such conditions.