Three Punjab ministers break walls to redo their offices in heritage secretariat

As per norms, renovation work in a heritage building needs the permission of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee. An office-bearer of the CHCC, wishing not to be named, said no such permission was taken. “We are not even aware of this. Had anyone sought the permission, it would have been routed to us through the Chandigarh administrator. And removing a wall is serious thing and most likely no permission could be given. But, we would have examined the site and the proposal before taking a call had anyone submitted an application seeking the permission,” said the CHCC office-bearer.

Singla, when contacted, said, “As far as my room is concerned, it was renovated after chief engineer of my department obtained all the permissions.” “Whatever permission was required, it was obtained by the chief engineer of [Punjab], PWD department. Nothing happened without permission. And if there is something extra to which I was not entitled to, I will compensate from my own pocket,” Singla said.

Sources said the General Administration Department (GAD) of the state government had flagged the issue, pointing out that the wall in Singla’s room was demolished without informing and without a go-ahead from the department.

Sources said that after Singla got the wall removed and the room renovated, Soni sought to remove the wall on similar lines for a bigger room, followed by Sodhi. While Singla’s room is ready after renovation, the work is going on in the rooms allotted to Soni and Sodhi even as the wall separating the rooms of their personal staff have been demolished. “We are looking into the matter,” said GAD Principal Secretary Kirpa Shankar Saroj.

Punjab PWD Chief Engineer Arvinder Singh said the walls which were removed were “three inches brick walls” erected as partitions. “The building of Civil Secretariat is a framed structure and hence removing such walls has no connection with heritage. It is the facade of the building which is the main concern and 90 per unauthorised constructions in the balconies have been removed to preserve the heritage character of the building,” he said.

He said the ministers had taken up the matter with GAD on their own and the executive engineer in-charge got the walls removed following “verbal instructions” from GAD officials. “Ministers also wrote to the General Administration department. We did not write anything. There was permission for renovation of the rooms,” said the Chief Engineer. He said that drawings for renovating the rooms were provided by Punjab chief architect Sapna. She too said it was only the facade of a heritage building that needed to be maintained.

Asked why no permission was sought from Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee, the chief engineer said, “In the past, 30 to 35 such walls were removed. We never took permission [from CHCC].”

Conservation Architect Abha Narain Lambah, who was appointed as heritage buildings consultant by Union Territory of Chandigarh administration, said, “Before demolishing any internal wall, the permission of [Chandigarh] Heritage [Conservation] Committee must be obtained.”

She said there had been several meetings with Punjab chief secretary about preserving the character of the Civil Secretariat building on account of its heritage status. She said she was sure that no structural walls had been altered inside the building, but added that she was unaware of the internal changes being made in the ministers’ rooms. “I have no such intimation. I cannot comment until I have evidence,” she said.

While Sodhi, who is using another room in the Secretariat as a stop-gap arrangement till his official room is renovated, was not available for comment, Soni said on phone, “There are all permissions. The renovation was not done in my office alone, offices of all were renovated.”

“All have done this to make rooms bigger and this has happened in the past as well. There is nothing wrong in it. The walls which have been removed were merely temporary walls. The building is made of RCC structure and has pillars. No pillar was demolished and only temporary wall has been demolished,” Soni said. Meanwhile, sources said there were requests from the ministers to the GAD to provide alternate space for their personal staff.