State government to bring out a coffee table book on the building that defines Bangalore.

The magnificent Vidhana Soudha may draw ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from visitors to the city, but the man responsible for the constructing the imposing mansion that seats the legislature and the government in Karnataka, had to face the face the ignominy of an indictment from an inquiry committee that found him guilty of wasting tax-payers’ money on the building, during its construction.

Kengal Hanumanthaiya, then chief minister, who made it the mission of his life to build the structure which is considered among the grandest legislature buildings anywhere in the country, was indicted by a committee appointed by himself, and headed by the then leader of the Opposition, JM Imam, the then accountant general and the then general manager of the State Bank of Mysore, BV Narayana Reddy.

The committee finished its work in six months and came out with a 222-page report after questioning over 200 people. The anecdote and many other interesting ones are contained in a coffee table book that the state government is set to bring out. The 324-pager, commissioned by the state government and written by veteran journalist CM Ramachandra, was completed three years ago, but was not released for some reason or other.

The book explains how Kengal, as he was known, had to go face a litany of allegations during the construction of the Soudha, including criticism within the party of spending scarce public resources on a building rather than focus on social and economic development.

Once, Kengal had to defend himself against such a charge in the presence of then union minister for community projects SK De at a public meeting held at the Town Hall in the city. De, considered confidante of prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was reportedly unhappy with the state government’s failure in implementing community development projects, but Kengal defended himself vigorously, asserting that construction of Vidhana Soudha was his top priority.

Prisoners from the central jail in the city were used in the construction of the building, and as Kengal was making an inspection tour during the construction along with Kadidal Manjappa, the future CM, one of the prisoners attacked him with an iron rod, the book says, adding that a man called Puttaswamy from Chikkaballapur saved the chief minister from serious harm.

Before starting the construction, Kengal visited the House of Commons building in London and similar structures in Sweden and Norway, as well as buildings in Mumbai and Delhi. The book, which contains rare photographs, recalls that Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone on July 13, 1951, and it was inaugurated on October 14, 1956.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home>Bangalore> Report / Place:Bangalore, Agency:DNA / by Y Maheswara Reddy / Sunday – July 14th, 2013