In a press conference held by Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri on the Central Vista project said he objects to the statements that were made in an open letter by former bureaucrats last year that has been making rounds on social media platforms.
“This project began, if reports are to be believed, because of a superstitious belief that the present Parliament building is ‘unlucky’”
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 31, 2021
How someone can put their signature on this bizarre letter defies logic! pic.twitter.com/bdsUfnM1za
In the statement, the bureaucrats had said, “There is a great deal wrong with the conceptualization of the project. Rather than establishing the necessity of the project with sound prior studies on environmental and technical parameters, this project began, if reports are to be believed, because of a superstitious belief that the present Parliament building is ‘unlucky’, as well as with the thought of leaving a particular government and its leader’s impress on the architecture of Delhi.”
Puri called the bureaucrats educated fools and said, “These are not educated fools but a disgrace to the country. I will not put my signatures on a letter that talks about superstitious belief.”
He went on to say that the need for the new parliament was made by the Congress government in 2012 and the old parliament lacks facilities and lack of space for the members. He said, “The parliament was designed for fewer people. We are making a bigger parliament building for the people of India.” He further said, “I think some of these guys need to have their head examined before they sign letters like this.”
Puri then excoriated the people who wrote this letter making rounds in the social media and said, “I do not know what agenda they have but they need to get their facts right.”
He talked about the false narrative being created and propagated around the Central Vista project and was aghast with the accusation that this was a vanity project. He also made it very clear that none of the heritage buildings would be touched.
The new parliament building will be ready as India celebrates the 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022. The estimated cost of the new parliament building is Rs 852 crores and the estimated cost of Central Vista avenue is Rs 477 crore.
Puri said that in 2012, it was the UPA government that had decided to build a new parliament and quoted Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, then-Union Minister for Rural Development who had said, “We badly need a new parliament building. This one simply isn’t functional and is outdated.”
It must be noted that the Delhi High Court had dismissed a PIL filed against the Central Vista project and called it a “motivated plea” and imposed a fine on the petitioners Anya Malhotra and Sohail Hashmi for wasting the court’s time in frivolous petitions.
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