Planetarium revamp plea reaches Narendra Modi

Built in 1987, Nehru Planetarium situated at Rose garden was once the favourite destination for kids to learn about celestial bodies. Now only some schools being their students here on weekends for educational trips as the planetarium with a seating capacity for 80 have stopped running shows due to losses. Despite claims of the Ludhiana MC that a whopping Rs 46 lakh have been spent on its renovation and maintenance in 2012, the condition of the planetarium tells a different story.

The brand new glasses installed by MC cracked within less than a year, the roof and walls developed cracks with water leaking in. Despite the approval of Finance and contract committee for placing new water coolers inside the planetarium premises, not even one has been installed till now.

In May 2013, Mayor Mayor Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria ordered MC commissioner R K  Verma to submit a report on ‘quality of material’ used within seven days but the report arrived much later.

Dharam Singh, superintending engineer, who submitted report said, “The contractor replaced cracked glasses without any extra payment and cracks in roof and walls were because of some other reasons.”

On Tuesday, a resident, Dr Ravindra Vatsayayan wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the deplorable attitude of the Ludhiana MC towards the planetarium. “Today we are proud of our country reaching Mars but the local administration is least bothered about the Nehru planetarium. I have requested the PM to shift the planetarium to the HRD Ministry so that it can be developed again. We have no hope from the MC,” he said.

MC commissioner Pradeep Aggarwal said, “I was not aware of any such enquiry marked for the planetarium by former commissioner. As of now there are no plans of its upgradation.”