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Mohali district industries centre was never renovated in 42 years
Dilapidated building, lack of infrastructure, staff crunch mar the working here
A dilapidated building with poor infrastructure, stinking toilets and files covered in layers of dust: Welcome to the district industry centre in Phase 6, Mohali.
The relevance of the building is determined by the fact that every day 300 people visit it for multiple government works.
Constructed around 42-years back, the building houses three Punjab departments — mining, industry and registration of charitable societies and is catering to two districts Mohali and Ropar. However, since a decade now, the building is suffering due to government apathy and is in state of complete neglect as it was never renovated after construction. The building has 14 rooms and caters to around 8,000 industrial units in both the districts.
‘Deteriorating’
As one enters the building, set up across two acres at the prime location of Phase 6, the damaged cantilevers on both the front and rear ends of the building, cracks on the walls, broken window panes, loose hanging electricity wires greet you.
While the racks containing records of the department covered by layers of dust and placed over the shelves in an unplanned manner is a common sight, the authorities are waiting for funds to grapple with the situation.
General manager, district industry centre-cum-additional registrar of societies, Harjinder Singh Pannu said, “The matter is under consideration. We are planning to construct a new building under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.”
Even during the rains, waterlogging is witnessed in entire area and it becomes difficult to even enter the building.
No watchman
There is an acute shortage of staff. There are only three block-level extension officers against the requirement of seven, only two industrial promotion officers against the demand of six and two peons against eight.
Despite the storage a wide variety of official documents, the building does not have a watchman. The official Maruti gypsy is stationed on the premises of the building since one year as they do not have driver.
Regarding infrastructure, there are only three computers, where as there is a requirement of eight as most of registration formalities of industries and societies is done online. Though there is provision of internet but the service is erratic as most of time, the internet does not work.
A senior officer of the industry department pleading anonymity said, “In 2016, an estimate of ₹30 lakh was prepared by public works department and sent to the concerned department, but we did not get any approval despite multiple reminders.”
