Jaya announces plans for new secretariat

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday formally announced the decision to shift the state secretariat from the historic Fort St George to the sprawling campus of the historic Queen Mary's College for women only a couple of miles away alongside the sprawling Marina in Chennai.

Making a suo motu statement in the state assembly, Jayalalithaa said the 3.9-acre Fort St George was insufficient to accommodate the ever-growing bureaucracy and the thousands of people visiting the state secretariat every day.

A new complex would be constructed on the 30-acre QMC complex with state-of-the-art facilities, including a helipad, a spacious assembly hall, and chambers for the governor and the chief minister.

"The proposed complex will be more aesthetic than the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore, and sprawling like the Vigyan Bhavan and the Parliament Annexe in Delhi," she said.

But students of the historically significant QMC, which is the oldest women's college in the country, are not happy to make way for the chief minister's grand plans.

Referring to their protests over the proposed demolition, the chief minister said, "Already, a majority of the 26 structures on the campus are in a dilapidated condition. The Capper House building has already been demolished."

She promised the construction of a new building for the QMC in the adjoining campus of the Lady Wellington Teacher's Training Institute.

Until alternate arrangements are made, QMC students would be distributed among other government colleges in the city, including the neighbouring Presidency College, the first all-male institution in the then Madras presidency.

Following the formal announcement about pulling down the college buildings, QMC students took to the streets, blocking the road in front of the college.

They have threatened to continue their agitation into the summer holidays, when they expected the college to be pulled down in haste to avoid a confrontation with the students.

This is the second time in recent times that the venue of the new secretariat complex has been changed.

Earlier, days after signing a multi-million, 15-year contract with the Malaysian government for the construction of a 'capital city' outside Chennai, the government said it wanted the secretariat in a hurry and chose a site on the land adjoining the QMC, housing fishermen's colonies.

Friday's proposal would involve changing the building rules along the Marina, where restrictions were imposed in the early fifties.

During the course of the proceedings, Jayalalithaa levelled corruption charges against the former DMK government over the construction of the 10-storeyed Namakkal Kavignar Maligai inside Fort St George.

Deputy leader of the DMK in the House S Duraimurugan challenged the chief minister to prove her charge.

Accusing her of attempting to divert political and public attention from the controversies surrounding the demolition of the QMC buildings, the party MLAs staged a walkout.