Assembly Speaker’s rejects order on maintenance of Vidhana Soudha

BENGALURU: In an embarrassment to Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad and Legislative Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy, the Public Works Department (PWD) has rejected their direction on the maintenance of Vidhana Soudha.

PWD Minister H C Mahadevappa said his department will continue to do the maintenance. As per Koliwad and Shankaramurthy’s direction, an order was issued by the Assembly Secretariat on May 3. It said that civil, electrical and architectural works, renovation and maintenance of Vidhana Soudha and other adjacent buildings would be handled by the Assembly Secretariat.

Through the order, the Speaker pointed out that it was “unnecessary” for PWD to handle the affairs of the Secretariat, when the Secretariat itself had constitutional and administrative rights to manage the works. The order also allowed the Secretariat to outsource all civil and electrical works to a project management consultancy.

Soon after the order was issued, PWD officials sent it to Mahadevappa to take a final call. “Since the time Vidhana Soudha was constructed, PWD has been maintaining it and other government offices. We do not know what the motive behind the direction was. Our basic responsibility is to take up construction work and take care of the maintenance too. We have sufficient resources to do so,” a PWD official said.

Mahadevappa said the order was a legislative order, and not a government one.“One can’t take up work based on a legislative order. PWD has been maintaining the work and it will continue to do so. There is no question of handing it over to the Secretariat,” he said.

When Express contacted Speaker Koliwad, he said, “What is the public interest in this? Secretariat or PWD, whoever maintains it, at the end of the day, maintenance matters more.”