If the capital of a State is where its Secretariat is, then Howrah would replace Kolkata as the Capital of Bengal for the first time from Saturday.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the architect of this yet another parivartan, would inaugurate the new Secretariat to be housed in swanky blue-and-white 15-storey Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners’ buildings at Howrah’s Mandirtala.
A heritage conscious Banerjee, who is also an artiste par excellence, has rechristened the building — built a few years ago by the then left Front Government to house a textile hub — Nabanna (new crop) after a Bengali harvest festival usually celebrated with food, music and classical dance. Nabanna is also a drama in Bengali written by Bijon Bhattacharya and staged by IPTA. It was directed by Sombhu Mitra and depicted the severe famine of 1943.
The latest Nabanna is, however, decked up in swanky western style for a whopping expense of Rs50-plus crore with huge glass panels that would allow the Chief Minister a wide panoramic view of the Hooghly,
Howrah and Kolkata across the river from her 13 and 14 floor centrally air-conditioned enclosures.
After the Durga Puja, the Government employees would have to report for work at this new Mandirtala address in Howrah instead of the old Dalhousie Square or BBD Bag in Central Kolkata.
The address shift is, however, a temporary one because the Secretariat would return to its historic 308-year-old address at Writers’ Buildings after its thorough renovation that would see complete demolition of post-colonial structures, small wooden partitions and make-shift cubicles.
The new designers’ building would give out a “world-class look” with plush interiors reportedly designed by a group of renowned architects and artistes, insiders said without giving the cost details.
Nonetheless, sources said things would cost the Government “anywhere between Rs200 and Rs250 crore.” The new building, likely to be completed in a couple of years’ time, would house only a few important departments currently going out with the Chief Minister to her new office address.
Mostly the departments held by the Chief Minister like Chief Minister’s Office, Home, Information and Culture, Minority Affairs, Health, Administrative Reforms, land and land Reforms, Agriculture, Disaster Management etc would move into Nabanna. The Finance and Panchayat Affairs, are also likely to function from here, sources said, adding the transfer would for the time afford the Chief Minister one big political benefit in the form of getting rid of many other offices crammed with left-leaning employees’ unions to other places.
Meanwhile, State Opposition leader Suryakanto Mishra on Friday lampooned the Government for incurring huge expenses and pushing up the State’s debt burden by leaps and bounds.
“During our time Bengal was at the 12th or 13th place in terms of debts but today we have reached the top. Bengal holds the first position in terms of taking loan from the market,” Mishra said ruing how “the Government is spending on luxury without paying off the salaries of thousands of its employees.”
In this way the Chief Minister would soon lead Bengal to a financial anarchy, he said. “In fact we are moving towards a financial anarchy,” he maintained.