Started in 2009, revenue office construction work hangs fire in Kpuvi village

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 18

The work of a revenue office (patwarkhana) that started in 2009 in Majholi panchayat of the remote Kpuvi teshil of Shimla is yet to see completion. To add to the woes of villagers, the semi-constructed builidng has started decaying.

After the construction of the patwarkhana was left midway, a hole has developed in the slab. The pillars are in a dilapidated condition.

“The work on the building started in 2009, but was stopped midway. Ever since, the building is lying abandoned,” said Amra Devi, Pradhan Majholi panchayat. “I’ve no idea where the budget for the building came from, who was constructing it, and why it was left midway,” she added.

People are facing a lot of inconvenience. The villagers claimed. “We have to travel to Kupvi, around 40-45 km away, for minor revenue works as the patwari sits there. If this building had been completed and the official was available here, it would have spared people a lot of travel and trouble,” the pradhan said.

Meanwhile, the work on upcoming 30-bed Community Health Centre at Kupvi is also progressing at a snail’s pace. The work that was allotted in 2017 is yet to be completed. In the Budget Session last year, the Health Minister had informed the Legislative Assembly that it will be completed in August, 2021. “The work is on and it would be completed in another few months,” said a PWD official from Kupvi.

He, however, agreed that the work on the building had not been done at a desired pace. “The expected time of completion was two years after the allotment of work in 2017,” he said.

Locals, however, are not happy with the progress of work in the building. “To begin with, construction material used initially was very poor. So much so that the foundation wall had to be dug up and laid again,” said Sudershan Dhirta, a member of a local NGO. “Besides, the pace of work is still very slow. At this rate, it will take another two to three years to complete it,” he said.

Incidentally, a few other government buildings in the area have also seen inordinate delay. Following the reports published in The Tribune on educational buildings, where the work had been held up for long, and the abandoned horticulture building, the higher authorities have sought reports from the staff concerned. “With the Director Higher Education and the DC Shimla taking note of what’s happening here, we hope public money will not be wasted like this in future,” said Dhirta. —

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