Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday inaugurated the new secretariat Nabannya, shifting for the first time the administrative headquarters of the State from the 300 plus year old Writers’ Building which once housed the British garrison before functioning as the abode of the clerks of the British East India Company deriving its name thereby.
Banerjee whose party had during the earlier regime opposed the construction of the massive 14-storey building allegedly setting afire its generator room and damaging its interiors on Saturday hoisted the National Flag in front of the new building — about one-sixth the size of the majestic Writers’ Building — amid blowing of police bugles and conchshells even as Ministers, top bureaucrats and MPs jostled with each other to be a part of what they called a “historical frame.”
“We have taken a grand programme much to the chagrin of our detractors who had stagnated the State and are confident of finishing it in style,” the Chief Minister said taking on the Opposition who have been criticising her “luxurious plans” to renovate the Writers’ to its colonial glory at a cost of more than Rs 300 crore. The shifting and decorating cost of the new buildings has come to around Rs 50 plus crore, insiders said.
“The Chief Minister is complaining of huge lack of funds and frenziedly taking loans from the market placing Bengal on the top of the list of borrowing States — from number 12 or 13 that it had been during our times,” Opposition leader Suryakanto Mishra said, lampooning the Government’s lofty money guzzling plans — grants to clubs, women’s marriage funds and unemployment doles.
Currently about 11 departments held by the Chief Minister and some others such as the Finance Ministry would function from the new building for space crunch issues. Home, Minority Affairs, land Development, Agriculture, Information and Culture, Animal Husbandry, Planning and Personnel, apart from Finance and PWD would function from the building which would house the CMO on the 13th and 14th floor from where the Chief Minister would be able to savour the panoramic view of Kolkata and Howrah skyline, flowing Hooghly River apart from the three gigantic landmarks: Howrah Bridge, Vidya Sagar Setu and the Eden Gardens.
Insiders said the new building would go the distance in reducing the number of employees working in the new building — on the ground of inadequacy of space — letting the Government to transfer them to other departments, maybe outside Kolkata. “This is done to teach a lesson to the Opposition employees’ unions,” said
S Roychowdhury a former secretary of a staff association. This apart, the new secretariat is fortified with about three dozen electronic eyes. Most of these high-resolution surveillance cameras have been installed at strategic locations and would help the Government not only to check intrusion but also to keep tabs on the malingerers and mischief mongers who remove files and important papers for the benefit of the media, a senior official said.