Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Feb 5: Abhinav Theatre, the premium cultural space in the winter capital has been almost held hostage by Public Works Department which even after over a year of taking up the repairs and renovation has failed to complete the project.
The project has been funded by State and Ministry of Culture, New Delhi, and monitored by high-level officers including the Principal Secretary to CM, Finance Commissioner, Commissioner Tourism, Ministry of Culture and New Delhi sub-committee of experts.
It was expected that the prestigious Abhinav Theatre, the site for display of creative expression and energies and showcase of State’s cultural richness, would be a top priority project, but instead it has become victim to the adhocism of PWD which has treated it as one the routine projects.
Apart from the inordinate delay in completing the project which had started with an initial estimated cost of Rs 2.97 crore and later increased to Rs 6.38 crore, it is the failure of PWD engineers to handle the project with requisite technical expertise that has exposed the hollowed status of blue-eyed engineers enjoying plush postings in the winter capital.
This came to open when the Government constituted committee of theatre expert comprising of Balwant Thakur, Yasir Bhawani Bashir and others, during their visit to Abhinav Theatre on 24.08.2013, rejected the new chairs installed by PWD as unsuitable. The committee recommended that the very same chairs be installed that have been selected for the Tagore Hall of Srinagar, the renovation of which is also going on under JKPCC.
Minister for Housing, Raman Bhalla, during his visit to Abhinav Theatre to assess progress of renovations, on 14.10.2013, also gave express instructions to the in-charge engineer to strictly follow the recommendations of the expert committee and change the chairs as soon as possible.
The ineptitude of the PWD, team headed by a chief engineer, executive engineer and others overseeing the renovations of Abhinav Theatre, further came to light and became of object of mockery when the expert committee took strong exception to the fact that PWD bigwigs compelled by their sheer habit of sycophancy had also installed a front row of VIP chairs, that too taller than the seats in the back rows. An act quite contrary to the character of such secular spaces and the practice of installing chairs in theatre buildings world over.
Talking to Excelsior, Khalid Bashir, Secretary J&K Cultural Academy, said that since PWD has till date failed to replace the rejected chairs with new ones, I accordingly apprised the Minister for Housing, Raman Bhalla, about the state of affairs. The Minister has called a meeting with PWD officials on Feb 7, 2014, to look into the delay in installation of new chairs in Abhinav Theatre as well as Tagore Hall, he said.
What has further incensed the artistic community of winter capital, is the fact that the renovations of Tagore Hall, Srinagar, which were taken up later than Abhinav Theatre, are about to be completed by the JKPCC. The executing agency also had the foresight to keep well known theatre expert of Kashmir, as consultant to provide the technical guidance in repairs and renovations of the Tagore Hall.
In a display of arbitrary attitude, the PWD entrusted with repairs and renovations of Abhinav Theatre, never bothered to take the services of local theatre experts like Balwant Thakur or Kavi Rattan, who was closely associated with the construction of Abhinav Theatre till its completion in early 1970’s. One the best performance space in entire J&K, Abhinav Theatre was designed by Chandigarh architect Aditya Prakash.
In the absence of the guidance of a theatre expert, the PWD engineers have floundered on many fronts, including the choice of carpets on the floor, colour of hall’s interior, especially that of the stage front, which has been painted with a warm colour instead of shades of grey generally preferred in the theatre halls.
“Due to delay of PWD to finish the repairs of Abhinav Theatre in time, the Academy has been forced to hire unsuitable spaces like Govt College for Women, Gandhi Nagar Auditorium for holding its annual drama festivals and conferences by paying lakhs of rupees as rent, which could have been easily avoided had the project been finished on time, said Khalid Bashir, Secretary, J&K Cultural Academy.
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