Cuttack: The state government is yet to begin construction work for Zilla Sanskruti Bhawan (district culture centre) here even though foundation stone for the project was laid around five years ago.
Many social activists and intellectuals have expressed their displeasure over the state government’s failure to construct the Sanskruti Bhawan in the city here to boost cultural activities.
The Culture department of state government had decided to construct the Sanskruti Bhawan in 2014 to facilitate cultural and recreational activities in Cuttack.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid foundation stone for the project near Netaji Subhas Birthplace Museum August 21, 2014. State Tourism and Culture minister Ashok Kumar Panda, then School and Mass Education minister Debi Prasad Mishra, Barabati-Cuttack MLA Debashish Samantaray and Choudwar-Cuttack MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal were also present at the foundation laying ceremony.
However, the Culture department did not take any steps to initiate construction work for the project. Expressing concern over the project delay, Cuttack collector had written to the Culture department urging it to start the construction work immediately.
District culture officer Ananta Prasad Sethi said the state government had planned to build the Sanskruti Bhawan on 50 decimal land by spending around Rs 3.50 crore. “We had asked the local tehsildar to identify a suitable plot for the project and hand it over to the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department. We have also provided Rs 50 lakh to the R&B department to initiate the project work,” Sethi said.
When contacted, R&B department executive engineer Mujiboor Rehman Khan said they could not begin construction work for Sanskruti Bhawan due to delay in land allocation and tender process.
“The tender process for the project has been completed February 27. A private entity has been engaged to construct Sanskruti Bhawan. They would soon start construction work for the project,” Khan said.
