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Snooping row: Woman shot to fame through a garden project
The woman herself shot to prominence through a garden project.
While the widening of jewellery market in Bhuj is believed to have brought the father of the woman at the centre of the snooping controversy,Pranlal Soni,IAS officer Pradeep Sharma and Chief Minister Narendra Modi together,the woman herself shot to prominence through a garden project.
After the devastating earthquake on January 26,2001,the rehabilitation and re-building work of Bhuj city was going on on a war footing. The state government built a residential colony near Ravalvadi on the outskirts of Bhuj city. In the thick of things,Sharma,the then collector of Kutch,came up with the idea of developing a garden atop hills near Ravalvadi as part of the beautification plan for Bhuj and got it approved by the state government.
The Bhuj Area Development Authority (BHADA) floated tenders in 2003 for hiring a landscape architect for conceptualising and designing the garden,which was later named Hill Garden. The authority received three tenders and out of them,the one submitted by the woman,who had studied in Bangalore,was selected.
She was hired as a consultant for the Hill Garden project at a salary of Rs 15,000 per month. She served till the project was completed, confirms a senior officer of state government who was posted in Kutch at that time.
According to records available with BHADA,work on the sprawling 22-acre Hill Garden began in September 2003. The government spent Rs 1 .6 crore in developing the garden and relevant facilities. The garden,with a boating pond,rides,amphitheatre and bandstand,was completed in a record short period of four months as Sharma maintained a close supervision. Sharma would be seen taking a walk on the hilltop almost every evening. This was the level of his involvement in the garden project, says a senior journalist in Bhuj. But this duration was enough to bring the woman architect in touch with Sharma and and start a long-lasting association.
Government officers say Sharma was then in Modis good books and the IAS officer enjoyed the strong backing of the CM in all the rehabilitation projects.
Modi inaugurated the the garden on January 27,2004. Sources claim it was during this time that Sonis daughter and the architect was introduced to the CM. Incidentally,the Rotary Club won rights to maintain the Hill Garden for 10 years after it paid Rs 70 lakh to the state government. Pranlal was a prominent rotarian of the Club.