The water that accumulated in front of the dais during Monday’s meeting. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, Aug. 12: Rain seeping in through cracks on the roof and ankle-deep water accumulated in front of the dais greeted the newly elected panchayat pradhans of the district and their deputies when they trooped into Rabindra Bhavan yesterday for an orientation programme.

Such is the rundown condition of the only public auditorium in Cooch Behar town that the rural leaders had to spend the day sloshing through the dank and smelly water in the presence of the sabhadhipati of the zilla parishad and officials of the panchayat department.

The broken asbestos roof of the hall located on Magazine Road here lets in rain and during heavy showers, people inside have to open their umbrellas to avoid a thorough drenching. In fact, yesterday, a number of umbrellas were up in the audience.

“I could see the water seeping in during yesterday’s meeting. Rabindra Bhavan is in need of immediate repairs,” said sabhadhipati Dilip Biswas.

Kanak Barman, the gram panchayat pradhan of Putimari I, could not conceal his dismay. “Cooch Behar is a heritage town, but look at what has happened to Rabindra Bhavan. And we would not have known about it if we had not gone to the auditorium for the meeting,” the Forward Bloc pradhan said. He added that the new clothes he wore for the occasion were ruined.

The condition of Rabindra Bhavan, however, is not a secret to all those who rent the hall for programmes and fall victim to the leaky roof. Being the only available hall in town, it is used for government programmes, theatre performances and even to screen films.

According to a source, the hall is rented out by the district magistrate’s office for Rs 2,000 per show or meeting. “However, there have been no attempts to repair the gradually decaying structure,” sad the source.

“Dinhata, which is a subdivisional town, has a proper auditorium, Nripendranarayan Sadan, but the district headquarters is left with a dilapidated hall. We have drawn the attention of the district administration to the state of affairs, but nothing is being done,” said Pinaki Mukherjee, a theatre person.

District magistrate Rajesh Kumar Sinha said a proposal for the renovation of Rabindra Bhavan had been sent to the Bengal government. Additional district magistrate Sunil Agarwala added: “The place is in need of major repairs and we have sent an estimate of Rs 2.5 crore to the state information and culture department. We will start work as soon as it is cleared.”

District administration sources said Rabindra Bhavan was built about 30 years ago.