An all-party meeting held in the district had already agreed to turn Palpa Durbar into a museum, but the district administration office (DAO) held another all-party meeting recently and decided to shift the offices of the DAO, the district development committee (DDC) and the district land revenue office (DLRO) into the palace for three years, pointing out that those three government offices have been forced to operate out of tin-roofed huts for lack of proper premises of their own. [break]
With this decision, doubts have surfaced among stakeholders whether the authorities will implement the decision on turning the palace area into a major tourist hub after the three-year period.
“We have decided to shift the three offices into the palace for the next three years. The offices will move out of there after alternative arrangements are made. All the stakeholders have agreed to our decision,” said Chief District Officer (CDO) Shiva Raj Joshi.
The all-party meeting was organized among local political leaders, government officials, representatives of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Palpa, members of civil society and development-related NGOs.
“All the political parties have agreed to develop the palace as a museum. But as the government offices are facing a problem of office space, we have agreed to let them shift into the palace for some time,” said Basanta Sharma, district coordinator of the UCPN(Maoist), adding, the work of developing infrastructure for the museum and for the government offices will proceed simultaneously.
´We will shift the offices into the palace for the time being and construct a joint building for the DAO, DDC and DLRO at another site by the next three year,´ said CDO Joshi.
However, Radha Krishna Poudel, district chairman of the CPN-UML, said if the government offices shift into the palace, the place will turn completely into an administrative block rather than a tourist site.
The Maoists had completely destroyed historically significant Palpa Durbar in February, 2006 during their insurrection. The government has restored the palace at a cost of Rs. 63,900,000.
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