The All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government moved the Secretariat back to Fort St. George on the very first day — May 16. Four days later, Chief Minister Jayalailthaa justified the return to Fort St. George. “Keeping administrative considerations in mind, I have decided to function from Fort. St. George.”
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the construction work, which began in late 2008, had not been completed when the inaugural event of the complex took place in March 2010. Work on the dome of the new Secretariat was not over. Yet a replica was kept, for which over Rs.3 crore was wasted.
Disregarding administrative convenience, the previous government functioned from the incomplete building. “If the Ministers and Secretaries of their departments are separated by a distance of two km, can the government machinery function properly,” she wondered.
On June 22, the government issued an order constituting a single-member Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice S. Thangaraj, former Madras High Court Judge, to go into the causes and circumstances leading to alleged irregularities associated with its construction.
