A land for an old-age home is ailing.

A plot near Ranipur at Gulzarbagh has been lying abandoned, submerged in water, even after chief minister Nitish Kumar approved the construction of an old-age home on the land in 2012. Then social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah, a former member of the JDU, had laid the foundation stone in 2014 but the construction work is yet to begin.

Considering the plight of senior citizens, who are compelled to live on the streets because of lack of dedicated homes for them, the government in 2012 had taken the decision to build the old-age home in Patna.

The Bihar State Building Construction Corporation Limited (BSBCCL) was allotted the required funds for its construction. After pressure from the social welfare department in early 2015, the officials of the construction department had visited the plot in February 2015. Only the soil testing has been done, after which, the designing of the old-age home would start.

Parveen Amanullah, now a member of Aam Aadmi Party, told The Telegraph: "The construction task should have begun by now. I don't know why it has not been done yet. Funds have already been allotted to the BSBCCL for the construction work. Only the construction department or the social welfare department could answer why such a failure to start the construction of the home. I laid the foundation stone on the direction of our office. After that I don't know about it."?

The plot is situated in a low-lying area, rainwater and waste-water from the nearby areas flow into it and so it remains submerged in water the entire year. The residents said the land always remained in water and weeds had grown all over the land. Amandeep (65), who lives in the neighbourhood, said: "Not even the foundation stone is visible these days because of wild plants that have grown over the stone. The land has turned into a small pond. Some people had visited the area four months ago but nothing more than soil-testing has been done."?

Baidyanath Yadav, the director of social security, social welfare department, said: "The building model design was already drawn by the building construction department. According to the size and condition of the plot, a new structural design would be laid out. We have written to the building construction department in early 2015 for a meeting in this regard. After the inspection of the building department in February 2015, the terrain level needs to be raised to avoid water-logging, which will increase the old-age home project cost."

According to social welfare department, the state government had allotted Rs 250 crore to build the home at Ranipur and other divisions. There are 77,77,000 senior citizens in the state but only only five homes across Bihar.