Ishmeet academy soon to be reality

27 October 2009, 09:25pm |

LUDHIANA: With the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) finally passing a resolution for handing over 2.10 acres of its land in Rajguru Nagar

locality to the cultural department, decks have been cleared for starting work on the music academy to be built in the name of singer Ishmeet Singh.

The resolution regarding it was passed in the meeting of LIT that took place on Monday evening in which the chairman of the Trust, Ashok Juneja, district town planner Mandeep Kaur, executive engineer (XEN) of public works department (PWD) JS Tung and other officers were present. It was decided that the 2.10 acres of LIT land would be transferred to the cultural department so that work on construction of the music academy could be started at the earliest. It was also decided that the LIT resolution would be sent to the state government so that their consent on the issue could be attained after which the work on the project would be started.

Meanwhile, sources in LIT revealed that seeking consent of the state government is a mere formality as the state government has already approved the matter and even the director of the local bodies department had in a letter written to the LIT asked it to pass the resolution regarding the transfer of land. However, the project had landed in rough weather after work started by PWD a few days back was stalled by a team of LIT officers. The officers had asked the contractor to stop work as it had not been approved by LIT. The officers had asserted that the work had to be stalled as the government had still not allotted land to Ishmeet Memorial Trust.

Meanwhile, when contacted, XEN JS Tung confirmed the move and expressed hope that the work would start soon after they get the consent of the state government. It is noteworthy that Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had announced construction of the music academy in the name of Ishmeet while participating in the bhog ceremony of the young singer last year. Badal had asked the state government officials to identify some suitable piece of land in the city so that the academy could be built on it.