The Chief Minister recently laid the foundation stone for the new public
library building to be built in a 400x340 plot in the southern corner
of People's Park at a cost of Rs. 4 crores. This has led to protests by
many organizations and citizens interested in preserving People's Park
as a park.
It may be recalled that the government had entered into an
agreement with a private builder, M/s Revathy Enterprises in 1995 to
build a public library cum commercial complex in the same location. The
agreement leased the 1.36 lakh sq. ft. plot to the builder for a minimum
period of 30 years at an annual rent of Rs. 1,80,000 and called for the
builder to provide 15,000 sq.ft. of built area for a public library and
utilize the remaining portion of the plot for a commercial complex.
There were public protests when the agreement became public knowledge
and MGP filed a PIL in the Karnataka High Court against the construction
since it violated the Karnataka Parks, Play-fields and Open Spaces
(Preservation and Regulation) Act, 1985. Sec.6 of the Act prohibits the
use of parks for any other purpose. Probably because of the public
outcry, the authorities stopped the work.
Now the government has revived the project to build a public
library in People's Park. But this time, the builder is Karnataka Rural
Infrastructure Development Limited (formerly Karnataka Land Army
Corporation), a government of Karnataka undertaking. The building with a
floor area of 25,000 sq.ft. is expected to be complete by 2014.
At least, that was the expectation when the project was revived.
Now a spanner has been thrown in the works as M/s Revathy Enterprises
has filed a writ petition (No. 10743 of 1012) on 3-4-12 in the Karnataka
High Court. It is claimed in the writ petition that the opposition to
the project was politically motivated. It is also claimed that
government renegotiated the terms of the contract in 2003 and that M/s
Revathy Enterprises agreed to the revised terms. It is further claimed
that the government issued a show cause notice in 2007 to the
petitioners to terminate the contract. The writ petition essentially
asks the Court to quash the show cause notice to cancel the contract as
well as the decision of the government to build the library on its own.
The writ petition puts a new twist to the People's Park tangle.
Construction material has been dumped at the site, but it is not known
if the authorities will begin construction of the public library when
the writ petition is still pending before the High Court.
B.V. Shenoy, Mysore Grahakara Parishat