In the State which provided one of the earliest examples of a representative, grassroots democracy, the grand new Assembly complex has four circular buildings of diminishing size. This signifies the people and three pillars of representative democracy — the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive.
In his public invitation to the inaugural event of the Assembly slated for Saturday, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, who has conceived the entire Assembly complex project, referred to the Uthiramerur inscription, which testifies to the existence of a highly refined electoral system and a written constitution on the mode of elections. The importance of the inscription, which historians date around 920 A.D., during the reign of Parantaka Chola (907-955 A.D.), was featured in an article in The Hindu on July 11, 2008.
Four circles
Explaining the architectural concept behind the complex, a senior government official says the biggest of the four buildings will be the Public Plaza, to which people will have free access. The Chief Minister is for turning the Plaza into yet another place of tourist importance. An open-air museum is proposed to be set up there.
The Plaza is expected to be thrown open to the public on March 19 when the State budget will be presented in the new Assembly.
The circular Assembly Hall, where elected representatives of the people debate issues and problems concerning the State, will be the next biggest structure.
The third is the circular library structure that will essentially be used by the Law Department, which can be considered as representing the judiciary.
The smallest of the four circular components will house the Chief Minister's office, which is the highest institution of the executive branch. The official points out that the Chief Minister is particular that the circular building meant for his office should be the smallest, meaning that the executive should be modest.
The official says that after obtaining passes, people can come up to the seat of the government.
Four water fountains are being set up at the entrance of the complex, representing the four circular buildings symbolically. They are designed in proportion to the size of the buildings.
Keywords: Tamil Nadu Assembly, Secretariat, M. Karunanidhi, Parantaka Chola, Public Plaza
One more crown for Kalaingar. Hope more from him and his son
What is the use of such a building, if there is no improvement in actual work done and modernization of the technology inside of the secretariat. Why is TN still the only state in the south to take more than 60 days to respond to queries and provide documents, while states like Kerala , AP and Karnataka have streamlined their process, made online tracking of document requests etc to 5 days. When will TN really come into the new age
Technical details looks good for this building, and being green complex is a great +.
Those who thrash on wasting public money have to remember that TN never had its own assembly building, and it was running in makeshift fort when it was Madras State, so its high time we need a building of our own, where the state legislature can be run, irrespective of which party is ruling the state.
They spent 450 crores for the complex, but just few thousands for the board with iron bars. looks like 19th century name board.
We need to look into the positive and negative aspects before censuring the Government with a parochial view of public money wastage. Some arguments in favor of Govt: It is a blend of traditional, cultural and modern architecture. We should not be misguided just by the structure, it indeed relates to our Parantaka Chola history. The condition of old secretariat was appalling, I have personally visited the building, except the legislative assembly hall all other structures were fragile. Infrastructure development is one of the best way of retaliation from recession. It has been proved time and again since it was propounded by Keynes. This marvelous infrastructure has generated revenues for thousands of families, it has benefited the wage workers. And any kind of infrastructure development would be a cornerstone in attracting huge foreign direct investments. Govt also plans to open up the biggest of all building into a public spot to portray the tradition and culture of Tamil Nadu, this may attract a handsome foreigners visiting the state. People who have visited New York, would be spell bound by the sky crappers, indeed most of them are Govt buildings. We appreciate the US Government for their infrastructure but fail to appreciate our own Government. Just because we think here our money is wasted". Some arguments against: 1) The pace at which the building was constructed, am not questioning the quality of building structures. But there is a possibility that all the workers would have been treated as mere cogs in machine. 2) Three years back, Govt constructed a new building in old secretariat for housing administrative officers. If this plan had been envisaged before, Govt could have made some alternative modes. 3) The majority point of view - waste of public money. I am not opposed to the new building, but the total amount of money Rs 500 cr could have been lessened. The structural representation of judiciary and Chief Ministers office could have been much more economical. The representation of judiciary hereby means a library. We should remember a very big library is on the verge of completion near Kotturpuram. And lastly, the dome which is half the height of the biggest building is that really needed? This new initiative boasts of many positives but could have been more economical.
Another landmark for Chennai; it is gearing to be among the world class cities and definitely this will be a feather to its cap; Hats off to CM of Tamil Nadu and his Team. We should definitely be on a par with Tokyo or New York within another couple of years. I am sure our CM will definitely do it
Why foreign architects for this project? We have skilled architects in our country itself.
Very good buiding.
Hearty congratulations to our able .C.M.and hard workers, engineers .
Well done, nice work. Proud to have a huge and attractive building. Wonderful work done by the workers. Congratulations. It is to be appreciated by every one.
I read and saw the photo pitcure of the newly constructed assembly cum secretariat complex built near the Marina. The people of Tamil Nadu should be proud of such a good and able Chief Minister. The other Chief Ministers of other States should also follow him.
Chennai is already congested how can such a building come up there? Imagine the traffic jam and chaos everyday morning. Just the elected members and their security will be more than 1200 with minimum 500 vehicals. What about civil servants, staff? Atlest 1500 two wheelers, 600 cars will crowd the area. A waste of public money; it will not last long.
Really a great vision from TN CM...All the best for TN to be the best state in India...
Marvellous building conceived by CM.
Good work. Hats off to the engineers, labours,and Tamil Nadu goverment.
Waste of public money. What is the exact justification for such a mega project? Everyone knows how and what business is transacted in parliament or state assemblies.
This is a wonderful building in Tamil Nadu.
Any building in the world definitely needs some renovation after several years of its life span. It is for the experts to decide whether it needs to be fully demolished or whether it needs only a few constructional modification. If the new Secretriat definitely needed because of weakness in the building structures of our old secretriat, the Govt. activity should be appriciated. Apart from these, during the project tenure of past one year many of our own people got job for their survival and many entreprenurs were involved in this project and shown some industrial growth. Eventually to recover from economic recession and depression every Govt. should take some initiative like this. If the ruling Govt. did not take initiative then who will? My hearty congratulations to all hard workers of this project and our own CM.
This is most wanted to show our financial status and culture. Therefore, we should not be bothered about the estimate and money spent for the project. It is the most appreciated project and all our people must encourage the scheme.
Most awesome secretariat ...hats off to the CM.
There is no doubt about the architecture or cultural heritage, we are confident of CM's view on this. The only issue lingering is traffic in this junction.
I don't know why people here are criticising govt for this beautiful structure. After all it's a public property and some day or other most of us are gonna share the building.
Expected a splendid structure that can be related to Tamil Nadu`s rich cultural heritage similar to the marvel that can be seen in Karnataka. They made a hollow soul-less structure in the name of ultra modern. It should be worth remembering how other developed countries are high in self esteem showing their culture through their govt.buildings. They don't even try to make similar glass structures.
Good work by Tamil Nadu! Congrats!
Excellent construction...so happy to see such a building in Chennai..this would be one of the best ever construction if compared with other states secretariat...all credits to TN Govt. Well done.
Great work. My next visit to India certainly includes a tour to the new Secretariat. Awesome.
Secretariat is very nice. A lots of labourers worked day and night.
A cynical response does not provide any constructive suggestion. I disagree with comments on how wasteful these undertakings are. All civilizations around the world have attached importance to symbolism which are building grand physical structures, preserving cultural values, inventing novel systems (for example democracy as a governing system, etc. So there is no question that we should have a good symbolic structure to represent an important functional body of the state government.
It's just a mockery and waste of public money. We don't need a public plaza, please support and protect the current public libraries and please prevent the public park encroachments by powerful people.
Signs of Progressive Government, well done, Keep it up.
I think this is a waste of public money.
Why bring in foreign architect for the project design? We have very well known architects in the state who can do a better job incorporating traditional architecture since such buildings can be viewed as the one which represent the state too.
Excellent work by the Government in upgrading the Secretariat. GOOD WORK !.. WELL DONE !!!
Gosh..look at the SECRETARIAT signboard..it is installed using angle iron bars. It spoils the look and looks terrible. Cant they use some imagination and do a better aesthetic job.?
The photo view that appears in this article gives an impression that the assembly would be like one of the many buildings with glass covering that dot along the IT corridor. The buildings could have included the architectural traditions of Tamil Nadu.I hope each of the state assemblies in India is a grand structure showing rich regional tradition. It's such a pity and disappointment that the TN assembly is not going to have that traditional flavor.
What a colossal waste of precious public money.
A big, wasteful expenditure in the name of democracy. Always less is more. A govt. should govern less and less instead of expanding its size and expenditure at the cost of tax payers. Uthiramerur or not, people want effective and inexpensive and efficient government.And, this is utopia.
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