Several parts of Jagatjit Palace were closed after being ‘declared unsafe’

The ceiling of the drawing room of Jagatjit Palace in a dilapidated condition due to paucity of funds. Tribune Photo: Malkiat Singh

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 28

While Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh recently proposed to set up two new Sainik School in the state, the one established in Kapurthala is on the brink of collapse due to paucity of funds.A majority of the Jagatjit Palace that houses the school were closed in the last one year after they were ‘declared unsafe’.Perturbed over the sad plight of the royal Jagatjit Palace, which was bought by the state government for Rs 16 lakh in 1961, the school authorities have now written to Capt Amarinder to come to their rescue.Though the state government in a Governors’ meet held in 1997 at New Delhi had agreed to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Centre, it did not do so till date.School Principal Group Captain Shakti Sharma said as per the agreement, the Ministry of Defence was to frame rules and regulations of the school along with the admission policy and management, the state government was to provide a building and to release Rs 1.5 crore along with other constructional and infrastructural development funds.“The school was the third in the line of five Sainik Schools established in 1961 across the country. As the state government did not sign the MOA, we did not receive any dedicated annual grant. It was only last year that we received a grant of Rs 1 crore after 2012-13 but that too went away in clearing maintenance dues of the school accumulated all these years,” said Sharma.She said the only library established in Durbar hall of the school was closed on August 13 last year after its ceiling started collapsing.“As the school is established in a palace, it requires an enormous amount to maintain it. With no dedicated financial support from the state or the Central Government, we could not get the library repaired,” said Sharma.At present, around 618 students are studying in the school. The 12 hostels commissioned in 1963 are also on the brink of collapse and a majority of them have been declared unsafe.Cabinet Minister and Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit slammed the SAD-BJP combine for the dilapidated condition of the heritage building and alleged that the Badal family wanted to grab the 200 acres sprawling palace to use it for commercial purposes. “They wanted to close the school and utilise the palace for hotel purpose,” alleged Rana Gurjit.He, however, said he would soon take up the matter with the Chief Minister and the Ministry of Art and Culture to get a national heritage status for Jagatjit Palace.