Even though twenty months had passed since it was inaugurated, the new Deputy Commissioner’s office in Siddharthanagar remains unoccupied.
The office on Mysuru-Bannur Double Road in Siddharthanagar, resembling the heritage Lalitha Mahal Palace in its architecture, was inaugurated on March 10, 2018, by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah weeks before the last elections to the Assembly. However, the DC office continues to be housed in the more than 120 year old colonial-era style building, which leads to the Central Business District of D. Devaraj Urs Road.
The State government had decided to house all the offices of the district administration under one roof and laid the foundation stone of the new office in August 2016. The construction of the building on a 15 acre plot, earlier housing the German Press, with a total built up area of 23,000 sq.m. including a basement, ground, first and second floors was expedited and completed in 19 months at a cost of around ₹85 crore in March last year.
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The delay in the shifting of the offices from the existing building to the newly-built one was taken up by Housing Minister V. Somanna, who is also the Minister in-charge of Mysuru district, with the officials of the district administration on Saturday evening.
Spelling out the reasons for the delay, Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar said the cabling work pertaining to State Wide Area Network (SWAN) is holding up the process. The contract for laying the cables is part of the entire project including the construction of the building and the delay in clearing the pending bills to the contractor is among the reasons for the incomplete cabling work.
All the systems in the Deputy Commissioner’s office are linked to the SWAN of the government, which is a closed user group that is encrypted and fully secure. The authorities cannot use the Internet cables of private service providers in view of the possibility of breach of data and leakage of confidential information. Even if the departments shift to the new building, the officials will not be able log in to their computers for routine work.
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The Public Works Department (PWD) under whom the works fall also informed Mr. Somanna about the pending dues to the contractor.
Mr. Somanna, who assured to do the needful, directed the officials to expedite the pending works needed for the shifting to the new building.
Apart from the Revenue Department, which falls directly under the Deputy Commissioner, the new building is expected to house the offices of District Registrar, Treasury, Muzrai, Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare, Mines and Geology, Legal Metrology, Fisheries, Excise Departments and B.R. Ambedkar Development Corporation.
The new office will also have parking spaces for four-wheelers and two-wheelerss, toilets and two capsule-type glass lifts. It remains to be seen if the shifting is expedited after the meeting Mr. Somanna held with officials and people’s representatives.
The meeting, among others, was also attended by Chamaraja MLA L. Nagendra, Police Commissioner K.T. Balakrishna, Superintendent of Mysuru district police C.B. Rishyant, Mysuru ZPCEO K. Jyothi, Additional Deputy Commissioner B.R. Poornima and Commissioner of Mysuru City Corporation Gurudath Hegde.