Bhubaneswar, Jan. 11: Municipal corporation's plan to build a new and a bigger office at Unit-VIII suffered a setback with the authorities scrapping it apparently due to public protest.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation had decided to construct a multi-storey office building by demolishing a kalyan mandap (banquet hall) at Unit-VIII. The Rs 40-crore plan had been initiated in 2014, and the foundation stone for the project was laid on Local Self Government Day in 2015, following which the kalyan mandap was demolished.
This the local residents opposed, apparently forcing the civic authority to junk the idea of building the office there.
While mayor Ananta Narayan Jena attributed the decision to roll back to the residents' protest, corporation sources talked about unavailability of the required space.
"We care about the citizens' feelings. They have opposed our move to build our office here. After deliberation with various stakeholders, we have decided to look for another land for the office. We will hold a final meeting and identify a suitable land," said the mayor.
On the other hand, sources said the land that was available to the corporation after demolishing the kalyan mandap was not enough to construct the office building. So, the plan was dropped.
"The plan is amended now. It has been decided that the smart city office and the city command control centre will come under one roof. The space here is not enough," said a civic body official.
Whatever may be the official reason, repeated protests from the Nayapalli residents appear to play an important role for rollback of the decision. "We had written several times to the government not to allow the civic body to raze the kalyan mandap for its new office here," said local resident Bhanudev Parida.
Office or no office - the residents are now deprived of the kalyan mandap, which was the sole such facility in the locality. Besides, the Unit-VIII kalyan mandap was one of the oldest in the city. And as compensation, what the residents have got is not "up to the mark".
"The kalyan mandap was the only such facility in our locality. It will not be proper for the civic body to deprive us of this. They have opened a community centre nearby which they say would serve the same purpose. But, the services available there are not up to the mark. We are happy that the officials have finally dropped the plan to have their office here," said Parida.
The civic body is now planning to increase the capacity of the existing community centre at Unit-VIII in line with other major kalyan mandaps of the city. "We have already built three kalyan mandaps around Unit-VIII - at Unit-VI, Unit-IV and IRC Village. Besides, the existing community centre will cater to around 1,000 people," said the mayor.
Earlier, the civic body had also tried to get government land at Bachelors' Barrack at Unit-VIII and Madhusudan Nagar at Unit-IV. But again, they tasted failure as the barrack plot went to another government department, while the Madhusudan Nagar one was claimed by the accountant-general's office.
Officials of the state housing and urban development department yesterday held a meeting to discuss the location of suitable land for the civic body's new office. However, the meeting remained inconclusive. Officials will have another meeting to discuss the issue shortly.
