Why not Secretariat at Koyambedu or Guindy: Shanmugam

CHENNAI: The CPM, which supports the government from outside, on Saturday staged a protest here strongly opposing the TVK regime's plan to build a new Secretariat complex at downtown Pattinapakkam near the Marina beachfront.

The Marxist party demanded that the proposal be immediately dropped as fishermen will be affected and the neighbourhood around the chosen site is heavily congested and hence, unsuitable.

The proposal must be withdrawn and an all-party meeting must be held to solicit views on alternative sites and a suitable place must be selected within the Chennai city, the CPM said and warned that it will "stop work" in case authorities commence construction at the proposed site near the beach.

Speaking to reporters after leading the demonstration, CPM state secretary P Shanmugam said that the decision to construct the Secretariat-Assembly complex in Pattinapakkam was "flawed and unacceptable" in view of several relevant factors.

The proposed project near the seashore, if implemented, will seriously affect the livelihoods of fishermen and also their residential neighbourhoods.

"Whoever may have proposed this site, it is unacceptable and must be rejected," he said. He said the Tamil Nadu government should accede to the demand of fishermen to build houses for them at that site.

"In case the Secretariat plan at Pattinapakkam fructifies, and if the CM and Ministers frequent this place, due to congestion, people will not wish to continue to live there," he said.

He asserted: "I would like to make it very clear that Pattinapakkam is not suitable by any parameter." To a question on the work for setting up a new office space for the CM at Namakkal Kavignar Maaligai building's 10th floor with the Fort St George campus, the state CPM chief said that a new Secretariat may take years for completion. "In the meantime, they need space, so its okay."

Shanmugam said: "I do not know whether the chief minister is aware of this. But officials must be fully knowing about it. It was officials who provided tsunami relief and built houses for the affected people; the decision to build the new Secretariat in an area vulnerable to tsunami is unacceptable."

Sarcastically, he said: "I do not know if they have discovered a new technology to prevent tsunami and I would also like to ask the State government if it has decided that there will not be no tsunami anymore."

At the same time, the Marxist party does not accept the idea of some leaders to set up an administrative city, "several hundred kilometres away," he said. The Guindy Race Course Grounds, spread over 160 acres, owned by the government is among the appropriate choices.

As the terminus for long-distance buses at Koyambedu in the city has been shifted to suburban Kilambakkam, that site is also available.