The DMK wanted it to be a showpiece for the city. Today, it was just that.

Hundreds of AIADMK and DMDK workers who had come to Chennai to witness the swearing-in of the Jayalalithaa-led Ministry thronged the yet-to-be-finished building — the new Assembly and Secretariat complex.

Policemen did not frisk them nor did they try to prevent the partymen from entering the premises.

A few clicked away their mobile phone cameras.

Some walked into the Legislative Council chamber and soaked in the atmosphere.

For Dominic, an AIADMK loyalist and an electrician from Tiruchi, this was an opportunity that could not be missed.

He had come along with a few others for the swearing-in, which he watched on the giant television screens placed across the road from the venue on the Marina.

Once that was over, he walked to the under-construction Secretariat on what is known as the Government Estate.

CHANCE

“Why miss this chance. We may not get another opportunity to walk inside the building so easily,” he said.

Govindarajan, a security guard from Tiruchi, who had come with Dominic, was waiting to go up to the CM's chambers. “They would not have allowed us in earlier,” he said.

Most of them took the elevator to the sixth floor — where the chief minister's room is located — “just to see how it looks like.” Plainclothes policemen on duty let all of them have free access.

Apart from the visitors, the bustle seen when the DMK was in power was missing. Construction work has come to a standstill, although as one of the employees said, “there is at least another six months of work before the building can be completed.”

The then Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, laid the foundation stone for the new Assembly and Secretariat complex in June 2008 and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, opened it in March 2010.

BACK TO OLD HOME

The few departments that had moved in to the new complex from Fort St. George are shifting back. A few Tamil typewriters were being loaded on to a mini-truck.

“Do we have a choice?” was the response of one of the employees when asked what he thought of shifting back.

The classical Tamil library that was housed in the old Assembly in Fort St.George has been moved to the new complex; with the Jayalalithaa administration making it clear that it would function only from Fort St. George. Nearly 40,000 books in the library were moved in a round-the-clock operation.

Scores of trees were cut or transplanted and an old building knocked down in the Government Estate to make way for the new Secretariat complex, which was to have two blocks of 930,297 sq ft and 743,900 sq ft respectively. The cost has increased from Rs 700 crore to over Rs 900 crore and its completion delayed.

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