Built in 2017, Palampur health centre yet to be inaugurated

Strap: PWD fails to release funds to contractor, who hasn’t handed over possession to govt

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, January 23

Constructed at a cost of Rs1 crore two-and-a-half years ago, a primary health centre at Maniyara village, 20 km from here, is yet to be handed over to the public due to official bottlenecks.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that the construction of this health centre was taken up during the Congress regime and the building was completed in August 2017. However, it could not be put to use to date as the Public Works Department had not released the outstanding payment of the contractor.

A senior PWD officer said this was deposit work funded by the state Health Department. “Despite repeated requests, the Health Department failed to release over Rs20 lakh to the PWD. So, the PWD was helpless in releasing the payment to the contractor.”

He admitted that the contractor had not handed over the building either to the PWD or the Health Department.

Palampur MLA Ashish Butail said the building was completed in 2017 and was to be inaugurated by then Chief Minister Virbadhra Singh. “But, the inauguration was delayed as the PWD failed to take over the building from the contractor,” he said.

Butail said he had tried to resolve the issue several times but in vain. “I met Health Minister Vipin Singh Parmar regarding allocation of funds but nothing happened. I had also raised the issue in the state Assembly but could not get a satisfactory reply from the state government. The hard-earned money of tax payers has gone down the drain due to official negligence and red tapism in the government,” he said.