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The Tamil Nadu Government has shifted the Legislature and the Secretariat back to Fort St George from the new, unfinished building for administrative and practical reasons, says the Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa.
In a detailed statement, the Chief Minister said the building coming up at the Omandurar Government Estate on the arterial Anna Salai does not yet have the facility to house all the 36 government departments.
This resulted in operational difficulty with the administration having to work out of two locations, the Fort St George and the new facility.
“The previous DMK Government had shifted just the Assembly Secretariat, the Departments of Public, Home, Industry, Public Works and Rural Development and the offices of Council of Ministers to the new facility. The rest of the administrative machinery including 30 Government Departments continue to operate from the Fort St George.
Only when the second block, which is under construction, is completed there will be adequate space for all the Departments.
This could take over one year.
How can the Government machinery function properly with the Ministers at one location and their department heads and files concerned at another a couple of kilometres away,” she asked.
Construction on the new Secretariat had started in 2008 and a formal inauguration conducted in 2010 even before the building was completed.
The first session of the Assembly was also held here in March 2010 with temporary fittings. As of now all the facilities including elevators are yet to be completed.
Even the public is concerned because the location of the new headquarters in the heart of the city poses traffic challenges.
Local businesses in the vicinity such as the electronic components and auto components traders have expressed fear that they may be shifted due to security reasons.
The previous Government had announced that new bridges would be needed on the Anna Salai to handle the flow of traffic and had announced a Rs 500-crore project which is yet to commence.
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