Even as 30 years have passed since former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh was assassinated, the convention centre coming up in his memory at Sector 42, Chandigarh, is still a work in progress.
The former CM was killed in a suicide bombing at the secretariat complex in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995, during peak militancy years.
Work on the convention centre began four years later, in 1999.
Spread across 14 acres, the project is a joint venture of the Punjab government and the Chandigarh administration, managed by the Beant Singh Memorial Society. The Punjab governor and UT administrator heads the governing council while the Punjab chief minister and the advisor to the administrator are among the members. So far, the centre has a library with a multipurpose hall, conference room and exhibition hall, a memorial structure, open-air theatre and a cafeteria.
However, work on key components such as the auditorium block, convention centre, Sarv Dharm Repository (Interfaith Repository), exhibition-cum-multipurpose building, and guest house is yet to begin.
A senior UT officer involved with the project said, “In April this year, during a meeting chaired by Chandigarh chief secretary Rajiv Verma, the urban planning department had submitted drawings for the proposed convention centre. But we have not received funds from the Punjab government. We have asked the UT engineering department to explore options for construction under the PPP mode.”
{{/usCountry}}A senior UT officer involved with the project said, “In April this year, during a meeting chaired by Chandigarh chief secretary Rajiv Verma, the urban planning department had submitted drawings for the proposed convention centre. But we have not received funds from the Punjab government. We have asked the UT engineering department to explore options for construction under the PPP mode.”
{{/usCountry}}Beant Singh’s grandson, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, who is a former Khanna MLA, said it is unfortunate that even after 30 years, the project has not been completed. “Both the Punjab government and the UT Administration are now citing lack of funds as the reason. It shows how much respect they have for such a tall leader of the state,” Kotli said.