Renovation: CM secretary's office in shambles

For the past one-and-a-half months, a group of six government officials in the office of the personal secretary to the chief minister have been working in the midst of ripped out cables, discarded furniture, chunks of concrete and pieces of wooden paneling.

Till date, despite Siddaramaiah taking charge as chief minister, there has been no respite from the clutter.  

According to officials, the renovation of the office was taken up during the last days of the previous Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar.

Having promised to complete the work at the earliest, the Public Works Department (PWD) was stuck in a limbo after the announcement of the elections. The model code of conduct barred the PWD from taking up the work, which was yet to be sanctioned.

Being the sole authority to renovate the offices in the Vidhana Soudha, it is alleged that certain ‘gung-ho’ PWD officials went ahead and started to demolish the existing structure.

“The officials said that they will get an immediate sanction from Shettar and finish the renovation. But, the sanction never came and we were stuck with the rubble,” said an official working in the office.

On Saturday, as the first informal gathering of the new council of ministers took place in the Cabinet Hall, a few feet away from the particular office, the rubble was finally being cleared.

“Today, after nearly a month, the work has picked up. They are starting slowly by clearing the toilets and renovating the entire restroom. Hopefully, we will be able to get back to normalcy in the next week or so,” said another official. Officials claimed that the renovation of the entire room is estimated to cost at least Rs one crore.