During 2005, the central government had decided to establish an international convention centre hub to attract investment in Bhopal through its agency ITPO in association with the state government.
A senior retired officer has also flayed the government decision in a letter to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and said that the public property could not be used for commercial purposes. He has also said the state cabinet did not have powers to do the alteration.
The state government will empower Madhya Pradesh Laghu Udyog Nigam (MPLUN) to offer land on lease and it will earn a commission of 2 per cent on all deals by inviting private partners to develop a land of more than 15 acres.
The state government, instead of ITPO, has decided to rope in its own entity MPLUN of which tendering, documentation, and order placing processes are reportedly and allegedly "faulty" and are under Income Tax Department lens.
The private opulent residence of chief general manager of the MPLUN has been raided by a sleuth of IT officials last week. Satyendra Singh Rana director general (investigation) of IT department has said "MPLUN is responsible for government purchase and its process of purchasing is faulty. Our raids have indicated that MPLUN officials are involved in misusing the process to take huge sum of commission from suppliers." It is also not clear how a state government entity, which is supposed to purchase medicines, office furniture and other items from state based small scale units to offer them a room in a competitive environment, will handle a multi-crore project?
The state government has decided to invite private partners by altering roll of MPLUN as implementing agency instead of coordination agency for developing the Old Assembly hall also known as Minto Hall sprawling an area of 15 acres.
State cabinet has tagged land price at Rs 12 crore per acre. The private partner will be allotted land for a lease period of 60 years subjected for extension of a period of another 30 years provided the partner complies with all terms and condition, which are yet to be defined.
The state government has also decided to construct the convention center on an area of 5 acres, a world class ocenarium, a star category hotel of 200 rooms on an area of 10 acres adjacent to Minto hall.
Nawab Sultanjahan Begum constructed the Minto Hall of Bhopal in the year 1909 as a guesthouse near the Raj Bhawan, which then called the Lal kothi with an investment of Rs 3 lakh. It took 24 years for its construction under supervision of renowned architect of British era AC Rovan. The Minto Hall then converted into a college named as Hamidia College in 1946 which later moved to its own building. After independence the Vidhan Sabha of Madhya Pradesh was established at Minto Hall.
In 1996 the Vidhan Sabha has been since moved to a new building since then Minto hall has been lying mainly unused, occasionally being the venue of some exhibition.
