PWD to send Rs 54 lakh proposal to facelift Mini Soudha

Addressing the news conference after the meeting, PWD Superintending Engineer B S Balakrishna said that four proposals were made during the meeting, viz., Public Works Department will do the entire cleaning of the building premises as one time measure, lay inter-locking in the surrounding area at a cost of Rs 17 lakhs, take up structural repair at a cost of Rs 27 lakh and repair public utility areas at a cost of Rs 10 lakh.

“All of these proposals will be sent to the Government. The respective user departments will have to deposit the sum of Rs 10 lakh proposed for repair of public utility areas. If they fail to do so even this proposal will be sent to the Government,” he said.

The meeting resolved to form committee of occupants of the Southern part of the building, which has been neglected. The said committee will look into day-to-day maintenance of the building. Another proposal of outsourcing the cleaning works as done in the PWD section was also made. However, since stacks of junk are stored in the toilets, the user departments have been asked to clear off the junk within one week.

Balakrishna clarified that though the entire building is called PWD building, the Northern side of the building is occupied by PWD while the Southern parts are occupied by various departments. Since the user departments had deposited amount for construction, the space is owned by them and hence PWD is not obligated to maintain the same.

He said that Forest department had deposited Rs 14.41 lakh, Agriculture Department had deposited Rs 7.29 lakh, Health Department has deposited Rs 10 lakh and Information department had deposited Rs 4.2 lakh towards the building.

Quoting PWD Accounts Code and Karnataka Financial Code, he said that maintenance of the building is the duty of the user departments. “We have over 3,000 buildings under us. We cannot be practically maintaining all,” he clarified.