A view of the cracks in the building of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama in Amritsar on Tuesday. Photo: Vishal Kumar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 25

As the state government is inaugurating various memorials with ostentatious display, several buildings constructed during the last tenures of governments to keep the heritage alive are crying for attention.Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama on the bi-centenary of coronation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in November 2001, just before Punjab Assembly elections. However, the construction work at the panorama completed in 2005 and the then Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, inaugurated the project in July 2006.During the past 10 years, cracks have emerged in the walls of the building. The LCD and other equipments, installed to tell the history of Ranjit Singh’s empire, are lying defunct. The air condition plant is also not working from the past one and a half years. The fountain installed in the garden in front of the panorama building is also missing.The Municipal Corporation, which has been operating the panorama, has been unable to maintain the building and installed equipments due to scarcity of funds.Ironically, the government did not release a single penny for its maintenance during the past several years. The project had been designed and constructed with the funding of the National Council of Science Museum, a body of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India.Around 150 tourists, mostly foreigners, visit the panorama daily. The tourists give a good feedback about the content displayed on the panorama but non-functional machines annoy them.Senior officials of the Municipal Corporation said they had sent a proposal of maintenance to the government under the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana. The government has now sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for the maintenance work of the panorama under the yojana.