lackadaisical approach of the government machinery and and bureaucratic red tapism has seem to have put brakes on the much hyped state planetarium project of the science and technology department that ought to have been inaugurated few years back.
The Planetarium that was likely to come up within the six acres premises of existing science-centre at Chiraundi, Ranchi, is still buried under files at the secretariat.
The project was first mooted in the year 2004 and a tender was also floated regarding it but the plan got stuck as the department did not find any suitable bidder for it, sources said.
Blaming political instability as the prime reason behind the delay, an official of the department said, “When Arjun Munda lead government came into existence in the year 2010 the department ordered to assign the responsibility to Kolkata based company Creative Museum Design (CMD) that has necessary expertise in the work. However, due to state’s shaky politics the plan went out of the priority list.”
Recently, Chief Minister (CM) Hemant Soren headed a review meeting in which he scolded the concerned officials for their tardy behaviour and asked them to initiate the project soon. Moreover, there was a plan to construct science center and library on technology in states six districts namely Dhanbad, Hazaribagh,Dumka, Bokaro, Daltonganj and Deoghar , out of them only Deoghar have it. Soren ordered to process all the plans.
“In the recent cabinet meeting it has been decided to award the work back again to CMD Company and the department is processing the work order papers. As per the order papers, the company will present a Detailed Project Report (DPR) within 90 days,” the official said.
Meanwhile, Chiraundi situated Science City Centre which was developed with the idea of boosting the interest of state capital students in the field of science and technology is in rickety condition. Majority of the equipments are in bad condition. The films which are shown on the projector appear blur as a result of which students fail to distinguish between two objects.
CM Soren also highlighted the above mentioned issued in his meeting and asked the department to look into the matter.
PriyaRanjan who is looking after the Centre said, “Technical staffs have not visited the centre from past three years. Moreover, there is acute fund crunch. The department has been informed about the centre’s deteriorating status.”