The Hindu : Karnataka News : Parishanmandira renovation project may get under way in December

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 07, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Parishanmandira renovation project may get under way in December

K.N. Venkatasubba Rao

Committee will meet soon to finalise blueprints

The work is estimated to cost Rs. 1.20 crore
Guest lounge with 10 rooms is part of package

— Photo: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS: Krishanaraja Parishanmandira at Kannada Sahitya Parishath.

Bangalore: The special committee set up for the renovation of the 75-year-old Sri Krishnaraja Parishanmandira of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat has decided to start work on the building in the first week of December. The renovation is estimated to cost Rs. 1.20 crore.

Chandrashekar Patil, president of the parishat and chairman of the special committee, told The Hindu on Monday that the six-member committee would meet shortly to finalise the blueprints.

Besides Prof. Patil, the committee comprises the chief architect and the chief engineer of the Public Works Department, the former president of the parishat G.S. Siddalingaiah and presidents of two district units of the parishat.

Prof. Patil said the committee had decided to renovate all the three existing structures. The parishanmandira would be given a complete facelift without altering its original form. A guest lounge with 10 rooms for visiting writers and artistes on the first floor of the existing library building was part of the renovation package.

He said the Government had released Rs. 1 crore. The work would be executed by the Public Works Department. The committee had decided to appoint a retired engineer as a special officer to oversee the work and ensure quality. The work would be completed by April 2008, before his tenure as president of the parishat ended.

After vacillating for two decades, the Government decided in favour of renovation in 2006. The parishat submitted its proposal directly to the then Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh bypassing the Department of Kannada and Culture. In 1987, the then parishat president Ham. Pa. Nagarajaiah proposed a new structure with a plinth area of 11,719 sq ft in place of the parishanmandira. But the Ramakrishna Hegde Government left the decision to the executive committee of the parishat, which was divided on the issue.

In 1995, the then Chief Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, promised to release Rs. 1.25 crore for a two-storeyed structure and renovation of the parishanmandira. But the parishat was not in favour of mere renovation.

In June 2003, the then Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, instructed the then Commissioner of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), Jayakar Jerome, to undertake “complete renovation” of the building. But the then president of the parishat, Harikrishna Punaroor, and the BDA could not reach a consensus on various issues, including conformity to the principles of vaastu.

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