Painfully Dheera pace: Work on mini-secretariat hit by fund crunch

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Ravinder Sood

Palampur, February 24

The mini-secretariat building which is under construction at Dheera, 25 km from here in Kangra district, looks unlikely to see the light of day as the project has been left midway by the Public Works Department for the past one year due to non-availability of funds. Dheera was declared sub-divisional headquarter by the state government in the year 2017.

The project aimed at bringing administrative services to the doorstep of the Changer area residents and cutting down their travel time to avail such services at Palampur earlier. The construction of the mini-secretariat building was sanctioned during the BJP government in 2018. Initially Rs 10.81 crore were earmarked for the construction of the three-storey building and later the government granted technical sanction of Rs 4.58 crore. The construction work was awarded to Surendera Traders a Dharmsala-based construction company for Rs 5.16 crore. The construction of the building was to be completed within 18 months. Former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had laid the foundation stone of this building.

There was a proposal to house a Sugam Centre, litigant hall and ofiices of the Sub-Divisional Officer, tehsildar, sub-treasury, SDPO (DSP), AE PWD, IPH and CDPO. In December 2022, the new government discontinued the release of funds and left the construction of the building hanging fire.

“It was meant to provide some relief to the general public, who have to travel more than 25 km to Palampur town for every administrative work. During the BJP government liberal funds were sanctioned, but the new Congress government had put this project on the non-priority list,” said Vipin Singh Parmar former Speaker and BJP MLA from Sulaha.

A senior officer of the PWD said the department had sent a detailed project report (DPR) for administrative approval of the pending works, but no funds were released in the past one year. The contractor had left the construction midway as the PWD had failed to release the outstanding payments.

“We were happy that we won’t have to travel all the way to Palampur for redressal of our grievances or execution of simple administrative services,” the locals asserted while talking to The Tribune.

They said that they have been seeking answers from the local Congress leaders, but to no avail. “No one seems to know anything about the abandonment of the project,” they lamented.