Nadi’s new $200,000 court house, completed in December, has been lying idle for the past three months because the government refused to install an air conditioning unit.
This story was published by The Fiji Times on April 6, 1976.
A member of the House of Reps and was a Nadi Lawyer at that time, Mr Harish Sharma had said that Parliament had approved $20,000 in 1975 for a unit.
But according to him, the Ministry of Finance later said the building would not have an airconditioning unit because of a policy on conserving fuel and reducing the use of electricity.
“The building was designed in such a way that it cannot be used without air conditioning,” he said.
“Now it is lying idle.”
He said that if the Ministry of Finance could approve thousands of dollars on furnishing overseas missions, it could surely spend $20,000 on Nadi court, which served a large district,
“If the Government is serious about economising, it should start turning off all the air- conditioners in the ministerial offices in Government buildings in Suva.”
Mr Sharma said the Nadi court was moved to an old wooden building which used to be the police station.
“This old building is an insult to the dignity of British justice.”
