The construction work of the new Collectorate building in Pauri will be started soon in the jail garden compound here which is a revenue land.
The District Magistrate had held a meeting few months back seeking suggestions from the public representatives and citizens from different parts of the town in which the majority of the gathering had suggested that the new collectorate building should be constructed on the jail garden land in public interest and the colonial era collectorate building should be used till the construction of the new collectorate building so that the public coming from the remote areas of the district does not face any inconvenience.
The public opposed the suggestion of few representatives who were of the view that the old Collectorate building should be demolished to make way for the new building.
The jail garden land was given to the Pauri municipal board on lease in the year 2005 for the construction of a park on the condition that the municipal board would complete the construction for which land had been leased to it within three years, failing which the lease would be automatically cancelled and no money would be given to the board.
The board had given Rs38,75,000 for the 19 nali 6 mutthi land of jail garden.
The lease paper was signed by the then president of the Pauri municipal board Yashpal Benam, executive officer municipal, DGC Civil DS Rawat and the District Magistrate in the year 2005.
But the municipal board could not start the construction in the given time frame and failed to execute the task even eight years after signing the lease agreement in spite of funds being available for construction of the park.
On the suggestion of the public the district magistrate cancelled the lease, but the municipal board appealed for a review of the decision in the court of the Garhwal Commissioner.
The District Magistrate Chandresh Kumar told The Pioneer that the construction work of the new Collectorate building at jail garden will start soon.
The tender for the construction work of this building had been finalised and was awaiting only the clearance of technical point.
There is no stay from the court so there is no hurdle in construction of the new Collectorate building.
Kumar said that he has given in writing to the new Pauri municipal board president Yashpal Benam that the board cannot construct anything on the land because this land belongs to the revenue department.