Rickety Nahan Kothi gives nightmares to consumer forum staff

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, October 17

The District Consumer Forum is being run from a 159-year-old unsafe historic building and the staff fear for their lives. The building, which was declared unsafe in June, has a courtroom whose roof leaks during rain, trees that are growing into walls, broken windows and doors besides loose hanging electricity wires.

Housed in the Nahan Kothi of Sector 12-A since its inception in 1997, multiple efforts to relocate it to another site have failed. Around a dozen people who work at the forum are living in constant fear.

Forum President Dharampal, who is himself scared for his life, said, “Have a look at this building and you may notice that it can collapse anytime. Now, imagine what it’s like to be sitting here every day. The authorities concerned are not serious enough. This is a protected monument and running the forum from the building amounts to encroachment.”

Initially, the forum was to be shifted to the Mini-Secretariat in Sector 1 but the plan did not materialise. The next proposal was to allot space for it in the District Courts Complex in Sector 1 where adequate space is available but nothing fruitful happened till date. Advocate Puneet Tuli says, “I try and avoid cases here but sometimes I have to come here. This is a dangerous building. You should see the condition when it is raining.”

The Nahan Kothi was built by two sons of Sirmour ruler Fateh Singh between 1857 and 1863. According to the forum president, when the forum was started, this was supposed to be a temporary arrangement as the Mini-Secretariat and the judicial complex were under construction at that time.

District Collector Garima Mittal said, “A detailed proposal has been prepared. The forum will be shifted to other building soon.” The matter has been hanging fire for more than 10 years. How ‘soon it will be resolved is the question.

According to sources, the DC has sent a proposal to the Food and Supplies Department to shift the consumer forum to a private showroom in Sector 14, Panchkula. Under the proposal, the half of the basement and the first floor of the showroom will be kept for the forum. Notably, the showroom owner has demanded Rs 1.60 lakh as monthly rent. 

Sources revealed that the department was unwilling to pay such a high rent and will hold a meeting with the DC and the land owner to negotiate the rent. The forum President has agreed to the location on the condition that as soon as the multi-level parking project is completed near the Mini-Secretariat, they will be shifted there with adequate space.