Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Reserved for the Rashtrapati

The Rashtrapati Nilayam is used only once or twice a year, giving rise to several questions

PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

IMPRESSIVE STRUCTURE The Rashtrapati Nilayam as it stands today

The Rashtrapati Nilayam at Bolarum, whose present market value is estimated to be around Rs 50 crore, becomes a beehive of activity only when there is a Presidential visit, thereby raising the question whether the government should retain it since it is hardly used. The Rashtrapati Nilayam, which is spread over a massive 90-acre land, is used only for the Presidential visits. An expenditure of Rs. 10 lakh is incurred annually by the Rashtrapati Bhavan Secretariat towards maintenance of the premises at Bolarum, which is undertaken by the CPWD.

The expenditure is incurred mostly on the salaries of the 16 workers and a junior engineer of the CPWD, who is appointed as caretaker of the premises. It is only during the Presidential visits once or twice a year that the sprawling premises is spruced up and whitewashed for which expenses of around Rs. 50,000 are incurred.

There are 16 rooms besides visitors' quarters that can accommodate more than 150 people.

Built by the British in 1870 to house their personnel, the premises was a part of the erstwhile Nizam's property which was taken over by the central government after Independence.

Rashtrapati Nilayam is surrounded by bushes and weeds throughout the year and these are mostly infested with snakes. Once, just four days before the President's arrival in Hyderabad, the authorities of the Nehru Zoological Park caught four snakes that had sneaked into the Rashtrapati Nilayam.

The former President K.R. Narayan and his wife Usha Narayan learnt about this only a day after their entry into Rashtrapati Nilayam — and that too through a section of the print media. The location of `The Retreat Building' in Shimla and the `Rashtrapati Nilayam' in Hyderabad are indicative of the integrative role of the office of the President of India in our country.

These locations, one in north and another in south, symbolise unity of our country and unity of our diverse cultures and people

SHYAMOLA KHANNA

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail