Cuttack: The Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) is yet to begin work for turning a British-era jail at Darghabazar here into a freedom fighters’ memorial though eight years have passed since Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid its foundation stone.
The CDA has been sitting idle after carrying out some minor repair work at the historic jail with an outlay of Rs 5 lakh.
The jail, constructed by the British in 1988, was housing around 100 prisoners during the freedom movement. Many eminent freedom fighters from state including Nabakrushna Choudhury, Rama Devi and Malati Devi were lodged in the jail by the British government.
The jail was abandoned following the construction of a circle jail at Choudwar in early 1980s.
The state government had decided to turn the historic jail into a freedom fighters’ memorial by renovating the structure in 2010. It was then decided that the memorial would have statues of all jailed freedom fighters and detailed information on them.
The state government was supposed to spend around Rs 5 crore on the project which was assigned to the CDA, sources said.
“The British-era jail can attract visitors if it is properly renovated and turned into a memorial. However, the project has remained on paper only due to the callousness of CDA,” said social activist Sudhanshu Parida.
CDA vice-chairperson Rabindra Nath Mishra said they had engaged Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) to prepare an estimate for the memorial project.
“Intach authorities had prepared an estimate of Rs 5 crore for the project. We had written to the Housing and Urban Development department to take necessary steps on the issue but to no avail. We are yet to get financial allocation for the project,” Mishra added.
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