3 years on, Kullu Atal Sadan yet to be made functional

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, December 30

The Atal Sadan, built at a cost of Rs 24 crore and inaugurated by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur at Dhalpur in December 2018, is yet to be made functional. The building comes under the Language, Arts and Culture Department, due to which there were some issues regarding its operations. There are 18 rooms in the Atal Sadan but, as of now, stay is not allowed there.

18 luxurious rooms

Atal Sadan has a grand auditorium with a seating capacity of 650 people, a rest house having 18 luxurious rooms, restaurant and parking.

foundation Stone laid twice

• The first foundation stone was laid on October 12, 2011, by then CM Prem Kumar Dhumal
• On October 27, 2015, the then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh again laid the foundation stone
• Finally, it was inaugurated by the present Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on December 25, 2018

It has a grand auditorium, with a seating capacity of 650 people, but it is only used for government functions. Due to the negligence of the government, Atal Sadan has not been able to raise any income for the last three years.

The BJP and Congress governments had laid the foundation stone twice for the construction of the building. The first foundation stone was laid on October 12, 2011, by then Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and it was named Atal Dussehra Sadan in the name of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After that, during the tenure of the Congress government, then Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh again laid the foundation stone on October 27, 2015. Finally, it was inaugurated

by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on December 25, 2018, on the birth anniversary of Vajpayee.

Kullu Deputy Commissioner Ashutosh Garg said the government had framed a society headed by him to look after operations and maintenance of Atal Sadan, Dev Sadan and Kala Kendra. He said the society had started taking initiatives regarding Atal Sadan and soon, a meeting of members would be held and the future course of action would be charted out. He said primarily there was a plan to lease out a portion of the sadan, including some rooms, canteen and parking. He said full operations of Atal Sadan would start within a month.

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