The New Secretariat complex on Anna Salai was again in news within three months, once again for wrong reasons under the regime of Jayalalitha, whose ‘constructive policy’ is destruction of everything that Kalaignar conceived, evolved, designed and executed, even the more than a century old dream of Tamils, Sethsamudram Canal Project not exempted. That is the grandiose announcement made by Jayalalitha on the floor of the Assembly on August 19 under Rule 110, by which any discussion or debate thereafter is not allowed. But strangely the ‘opposition’ party members were permitted to register their appreciation of the move announced by Jayalalitha that her government had decided to house a multi speciality hospital-cum-medical college in the complex on the Omandurar Government Estate in Chennai and that the facilities in the proposed hospital would be comparable to those at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. Assembly Speaker D.Jayakumar allowed an exception to the rule by permitting floor leaders of various parties to ‘commend’ the Chief Minister for the move. The unwritten Rule of the Assembly under ADMK dispensation is exceptions to rules will be allowed for members to ‘commend’ Jayalalitha and rules will be thrown to winds if members are likely to adversely ‘comment’ on her moves and to silence them.
As the results of the Assembly elections were trickling in on May 13, overnight the functioning New Assembly Secretariat complex was vacated, the old Assembly hall in Fort St George where Paavendar Bharathidasan Classical Tamil Research Library of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil was housed, was cleared off and remodified as Assembly to suit the ‘vastu’ requirements of Jayalalitha. The chambers of Chief Minister, Ministers etc., in St. George Fort were readied in 48 hours by engaging hundreds of workers and spending crores of rupees. But it is still not explained under whose order the shifting was carried out as Jayalalitha was sworn in as Chief Minister only on May 16 and the first Cabinet meeting was held on May 18.
Later, on June 23, ADMK regime announced a Commission of Enquiry, headed by a retired High Court Judge ‘to inquire into the alleged irregularities like excess expenditure, inordinate delay and deficiency in standards of construction’. Further works in the New Secretariat were ordered to be stopped to facilitate the inquiry. On June 23 the government appointed controversial former judge of Madras High court S.Thangaraj to head the commission and to submit its report within three months. (It was this judge who acquitted Jayalalitha in TANSI case which was nullified by the Supreme Court). On the one hand the appointment of Justice Thangaraj has been challenged in the Madras High Court by DMK General Secretary Prof. K.Anbazhagan and others and the case is pending and on the other hand the commission has not yet started its work.
In the meanwhile, what prompted Jayalalitha to make this announcement on her own, all of sudden on August 19 ? There lies the depraved design. Because only two days prior to her announcement, a Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Madras High Court on August 17 challenging the shifting of the New Secretariat complex and using it for some other purpose and it was listed for hearing on August 19.
The PIL filed by senior lawyer R.Veeramani stated among them:
The main buildings were constructed in two blocks. Block A is the Assembly complex a seven storeyed building ground floor Assembly hall with 6 floors which has an area of 900,000 sqft. and it comprises the Legislative Assembly Hall, Speaker’s office, Assembly library, meeting hall, Governor’s office, Chief Minister’s office, chief minister Secretariat, leader of opposition, offices of ministers, office of the chief secretary, besides the offices of six key departments of legislative assembly, public works, finance, home, law and Planning and Development. The cost of construction was estimated at 623.99 crore and a sum of Rs 479.50 crore was spent by the Government so far for construction of the same. In so far as Block B is concerned the Secretariat building (ground + 7 floors) the work commenced and the cost of seven storeyed building was estimated at 279.56 crore and so far a sum of Rs 72.3 crore was invested. Besides Guest house, Kalaivanar Arangam, Multilevel carparking was estimated to be constructed at the cost of 60.86 crore, 39.68 crore. 26.28 crore respectively. Thus a total sum of Rs 551.80 crore has been invested out of estimated project of 1092 crore.
The New Secretariat cum assembly complex is one of the world class Green buildings which has 4 circular buildings of diminishing size. This signifies the people and three pillars of representative democracy – The Legislature, Judiciary and Executive with a highly visible dome, the design echoes the structural features of Dravidian temple complexes in South India.
The civil works of block A building was completed and Legislative complex was officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on 13.03.2010.
A writ petition questioning the structural stability of the complex was dismissed by this court on 18.03.2010. Likewise two writ petitions were also dismissed by this court on 24.02.2010
The last session in the old assembly building at Fort St George was held on January 11, 2010. Thereafter about 4 sessions were held in the magnificent New Assembly hall. The 1st session was held in April 2010 to May 2010. The 2nd session was held in the month of November 2010. The 3rd session was opened with Governor’s address in month of January 2011 and 4th session was held in month of February 2011. All the political parties in Tamil Nadu participated including the present ruling ADMK party.
A total of six key departments, besides the Assembly hall, Speaker’s office, Assembly library, meeting hall, The Governor’s Office, Chief Minister’s Office, Chief Minister’s Secretariat, offices of Ministers, Assembly Secretary’s office, etc had already started functioning from the newly built Assembly-Secretariat complex. Cabinet meetings were held regularly in the new complex. Huge expenditure were incurred in shifting these offices by the government from Fort St George. Interiors and furnishings have been done at huge expenditure and various government departments too were shifted with a great deal of effort, difficulty and purpose. They had all settled down and started discharging their public duties. The government offices thereafter were shifted from the Secretariat at fort st George to New Secretariat at Omanthurar estate at huge expenditure when the tenure of the erstwhile DMK-headed government by that time came to an end.
‘The Hindu’, had published the following news item on 07.08.2011 about the New Secretariat complex :
“The seven-storeyed building, which briefly housed the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, is one part of the Assembly-Secretariat complex. Called Block A of the complex on the Omandurar Government Estate, the building, measuring 9.3 lakh square feet, consists of four cylindrical structures.
The Block has about 700 rooms, whose size ranges from 600 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft. Many of them have attached washrooms. An exclusive entry and exit has been provided in the case of rooms for Ministers and Secretaries of government departments. Generally, there is enough provision in all the rooms for the entry of natural light. Compact fluorescent lamps have been provided everywhere.
The ground floor has a bigger hall, which accommodated the Assembly Chamber, and a smaller hall, reserved for the Legislative Council. The dome of the Assembly Chamber is still incomplete. A temporary structure was in place when the Assembly was in session last year. Rooms for Governor, Leader of the Opposition, and floor leaders of other parties are located on the ground floor. The sixth floor had rooms for the offices of Chief Minister and Chief Secretary. Interior works in some parts of the building are not over.
At the time of shifting, the Departments of Public, Home, Industries, Public Works, and Rural Development & Panchayat Raj were functioning from the building, apart from the Assembly Secretariat. One more department could have been accommodated. Seven meetings of the Cabinet were held in this building.
A circular driveway has been provided. No specific provision for parking of vehicles had been made as part of the Block since a separate parking facility was proposed as part of the overall complex project. Outside the Block, at least 100 cars can be parked.
On the fifth floor, a roof garden was created. A fishpond formed part of the Public Plaza, through which the general public was to enter the building.
At the time of suspension of work, approximately Rs. 480 crore had been spent. There is one more block – eight-storeyed and 7.43 lakh-sq ft Block B – which is incomplete. Around Rs. 80 crore was spent on this building. As part of the original plan, the complex would also have a 1,200-seating capacity convention hall, a guesthouse of 50 suites, and a multi-level car parking facility for 700 cars. The revised cost of the entire project was estimated at Rs. 1,092 crore.”
Whatever be the provocation, tax-payers’ money should not be frittered away by governments elected by people. Such decision of the Government to abandon the New Legislative cum Secretariat Project driven by their pleasure and their whims and fancies when it is a fact that Rs.551.80 crore of public money has been spent. It is obvious that merely because the erstwhile DMK government conceived and started construction of the Assembly-Secretariat complex, the present ADMK party which power-heads the government has decided to abandon it. The concept of one Government and binding Administrative decision is now disowned by the new rulers which cannot be countenanced in law. Public money and resources can never be allowed to be wasted in turf or ideological war between two political parties that assume power alternately every five years. If such approach of the government is approved the same will sound a death knell to the coffers of the government. Such attitude of the changing government can never be appreciated nor accepted.
Tamil Nadu is a state where party in power changes regularly which could be seen in last 24 years. Under these circumstances, if one political party is allowed to abandon the projects which has commenced with heavy investment and neared completion initiated during the term of another political party, then there will not be any continuity in administration and it would result in chaos and abandoned promises to the electorate. It is an admitted fact that no mega project could be completed within 5 year term period. If such act is allowed to happen then every project will be rushed through, which is neither good for the project nor to the people who are the ultimate beneficiaries. No popular government has any right to risk the public money and state resources at the altar of political war. A developmental project or an infrastructural project undertaken with much investment cannot be abandoned for a mere political disliking or change in political ideology.
The unwritten mandate of a popular government in a democracy is to continue the development and infrastructural projects of the previous regime, and not to abandon them on flimsy and partisan grounds. The court which is the custodian of public trust alone can intervene when the government acts in an arbitrary and whimsical manner. The present state government’s inimical attitude towards their political rivals cannot be allowed to stall New Assembly cum Secretariat project which has neared the completion, as it had the constitutional duty to fulfill the projects undertaken with heavy investments out of the state coffers initiated by the earlier regime. If Governments toy with public resources for extraneous and ulterior reasons, the Courts may not turn a blind eye to such arbitrary exercise of powers vitiated by political whims and fancies of a ruling establishment. Fiscal responsibility, accountability and prudence is the constitutional requirement of a welfare government, and if there is any deviation from its constitutionally-mandated duty, then courts can step in and put the system back on the rails through judicial pronouncements.
The New secretariat cum legislative complex is not only abandoned but it is left to the mercy of looters and history sheeters who walk freely into the complex and lift the materials as they like. Though the New Secretariat cum assembly complex has been ordered to be locked there is no ample security provided to safeguard the materials, fixtures and furnitures. During night all lights inside the complex and outside is switched off and by not posting enough men to guard the new Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex and by not putting in place enough facilities including lighting and fencing, the state government has been making an attempt to render the public project useless and unusable. It is nothing but a deliberate attempt to reduce the whole structure into a heap of rubble, unmindful of the huge amount of public money spent on the project.
No work is going on at the site, and that all the construction workers had already been turned away. Left to the mercy of the elements, the whole structure built at huge public cost would start falling apart like ancient ruins which is not advisable even from the technical point of view. The building with a huge investment cannot be arbitrarily abandoned and such decision of the government to stop all interior works and lock up the complex even without allowing it to be completed smacks with malafides besides being unreasonable. It is the constitutional duty of a state government to protect its resources as well as that of the public. The finished Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex is a government property created by using huge amounts of public resources. It shall not be allowed to be reduced to a heap of rubble or left ideal just because the incumbent government does not like the whole project for some political reason. The more important factor is that about 9 lakhs sqft of constructed commercial space at Mount road is lying vacant and left idle and in any event putting at a lower expected rent at Rs 10 per sq ft, the monetary loss to the exchequer will not be less than Rs 9 crore per month. The state-of-the-art building should be completed and put to use for the purpose to which it was conceived, designed and built. The building is designed for accommodation of Legislative Assembly and the secretariat complex and annexure buildings for the purpose which it was conceived designed and built. Hence the building should meet its logical end by completion and occupation. The building cannot be given under golden plate to any commercial organization and ruin the resources nor spoil the building. If such things could happen the commercial entrepreneurs would damage the building for their sake of commercial earnings in which event the architectural and aesthetic building built for state to house their Assembly and the secretariat and annexure building for the purposes it was conceived and built would be lost.
It would be worthwhile to cite two contrasting projects which too faced similar existential problem as that of the new Assembly-Secretariat project. Firstly, the Combined Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) at Koyambedu was originally conceived by the DMK government during 1996-2001. While work was still on and the project was yet to be completed, an Assembly election intervened, leading to the change of government. The ADMK government which assumed power in 2001 did not abandon the ambitious project. Instead, it carried the good work forward to its logical conclusion. Thanks to that spirit, Chennai today boasts of the largest bus terminus in Asia, besides huge market complexes for fruits, vegetables and flowers. The move also decongested the core city areas of Broadway and Egmore, of platform vendors and private bus operators respectively. The Combined Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) at Koyambedu is today the pride of Chennai.
During the DMK regime between 1996 and 2001, the government built several mini-flyovers all over the Chennai city, with a view to ease traffic congestion in city areas. Though 7 mini-flyovers had been completed before 2001, when the ADMK won the assembly elections and assumed power, one mini-flyover at Perambur in North Chennai remained incomplete. The reason is one of the pillars erected on a rock sinked. The project was stalled as detailed study was carried out with technical experts. When the experts opined to construct one more pillar adjacent at a cost of few crore there was change in the heads of the government. The ADMK which came in to power abandoned the project. Just as in the case of the new Assembly-Secretariat complex, the newly elected ADMK regime alleged corruption and irregularities in the Perambur flyover project. It stalled further construction and ordered inquiry. At the end of its tenure in 2006, nothing worthwhile was available with it to initiate any criminal proceedings. After the DMK returned to power, the project was revived and completed in 2009. The cost incurred for completing the project escalated to several crores. Thus the loss went on the heads of the Tax payers. But, during the interregnum period, people of North Chennai had to suffer traffic snarls, and the project cost too escalated several folds, besides subjecting the general public to untold hardship, the policy of vendetta and vindictive attitude let the exchequer poorer by several crores. Thus the decision not to complete the flyover had costed the exchequer to several crores which has gone unchecked and unaccounted.
The Supreme Court in the recent judgment relating to samacheer kalvi (uniform system of school education) has held thus:
“Government has to raise above the nexus of vested interests and nepotism and eschew window-dressing. The principles of governance have to be tested on the touchstone of justice, equity, fair play and if a decision is not based on justice, equity and fair play and has taken into consideration other matters, though on the face of it, the decision may look legitimate but as a matter of fact, the reasons are not based on values but to achieve popular accolade, that decision cannot be allowed to operate”. (Vide: Onkar Lal Bajaj etc. etc. v. Union of India & Anr. etc. etc., AIR 2003 SC 2562).
17. In State of Karnataka & Anr. v. All India Manufacturers Organisation & Ors., AIR 2006 SC 1846, this Court examined under what circumstances the government should revoke a decision taken by an earlier Government. The Court held that an instrumentality of the State cannot have a case to plead contrary from that of the State and the policy in respect of a particular project adopted by the State Government should not be changed with the change of the government.
Thus, it is clear from the above, that unless it is found that act done by the authority earlier in existence is either contrary to statutory provisions, is unreasonable, or is against public interest, the State should not change its stand merely because the other political party has come into power. Political agenda of an individual or a political party should not be subversive of rule of law.
The petition sought the Court to issue a Writ order or direction in the nature of Writ of Mandamus directing the government to resume building maintenance and interior works, continue the construction if any and complete the New Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex, for the purpose it was conceived designed and built and pass such further or other orders as this Court may deem fit in the circumstances of the case to pass.”
This petition was heard on August 19 before a bench of Justices D.Murugesan and K.K.Sundaram when senior counsel P.Wilson argued for the petitioner and as Advocate General Navaneetha Krishnan complained that Chief Minister Jayalalitha was unnecessarily accused, the judges intervened and asked him not to speak politics in the court and asked the counsel whether any petition was given to the government. Citing judgements of the Supreme Court that there was no need to petition the government on such PILs, he pleaded for time to submit the copies of such judgements on August 30; the judges conceded and posted the hearing on August 30.
The media in Tamil Nadu - dailies and TV channels once again demonstrated their loyalty to Jayalalitha by completely blacking out this news from the people. Haunted by fear and apprehension about the outcome of this case going against her regime, as in the case of Samacheer Kalvi, Jayalalitha had unilaterally announced the scheme to convert the complex into a hospital cum medical college. While this act is blatantly anti-democratic, it is for the court to decide whether the issue is subjudice and the announcement amounts to ‘contempt of court’ and an attempt to circumvent the judiciary.
The only official reason advanced by Jayalalitha post facto, was that construction works in Blocks A and B of the complex remained incomplete, accommodating only six of the 36 departments of the government and it could not be run from two places. With this announcement, she had ordered expediting the completion of the construction works so as to throw open the proposed hospital to the public by the month of March next year. In that case 97,829 sq. mtr. of Block A and 73,399 sq. mtr. of Block B with eight storeys will be ready for occupation of all the 36 departments, Assembly and Council halls etc., If that is so why abandon the building for the purpose it was constructed? She had further said that the buildings looked more like a ‘commercial complex’ and the design is unfit for official work. If so can a hospital be accommodated in such a place? When she says suitable modifications will be carried out to the building to suit for the hospital and college why not she order ‘suitable modification’ to suit her taste of official complex for official work? These logical questions will not elicit any reply from her because all these are lame excuses to abandon the monumental building constructed by Kalaignar.
Kalaignar has advanced reasons as to why the building could not be used for a hospital. They may be considered biased. But an anti-DMK and pro-Jayalalitha to the core Tamil daily ‘Dinamani’ in an editorial had explained why it cannot wholeheartedly appreciate her announcement. In the editorial under the headline ‘Require reconsideration’ on August 22, the daily had stated “that buildings are exclusively designed with practical requirements and facilities meant for each sector whether it is library, wedding hall, residential quarters, shopping malls, school or college in mind. Hospital is not an exception. So many requirements are needed for hospitals like surgical theatre, wards with beds for general and special patients, rooms for doctors of respective departments near the wards, exclusive rooms for certain patients, lifts, exclusive water taps, incinerators to dispose off medical wastes, parking places for vehicles when thousands of people everyday frequent, kitchens for patients and eateries for others, rest rooms for doctors and staff nurses, housing facilities for residential doctors, sloping stairway for stretchers and so on. This is a time when there are special syllabi, engineering and administration graduate courses for designing and constructing hospitals and hospital administration. Leave alone super speciality hospitals, even for designing common hospitals, engineers go abroad and take courses. Moreover is it advisable to have a hospital on traffic congested Anna Salai and by the side of already heavily polluted and mosquito-breeding Cooum river.”
That Jayalalitha has not seriously made the announcement intending to implement it is obvious for various reasons and factors including the closure of functioning super speciality hospital set up by the DMK government at a cost of Rs.100 crore in Salem. Even if the media maintains stoic silence over the wasteful expenditures in shifting of the Assembly, remodeling the office building into a hospital and collge proposed etc., the audit report of the CAG will certainly pull up Jayalalitha regime. What will the media, which raised hue and cry over ‘notional loss’ in spectrum allocation, do for the actual loss incurred by the ADMK regime for the whims and fancies of one individual?
Another goof up of Jayalalitha is her announcement of a proposal to construct a criss-crossing network of monorail corridors in Chennai that would be 300 km in length, which will be the largest and most extensive monorail network in the world. Even if only the 111 km long phase-I of the project materializes, it will dwarf all other monorail networks in the world. This is the revival of the aborted project she announced during her earlier regime. Her aim in announcing this project, which is most unlikely to materialize and even if it does so will end in total failure, is to scuttle the expansion of the Chennai Metro Rail network beyond the two corridors that constitute phase-I under construction now and scheduled to be operational by 2013.
The Chennai Metro Rail project is financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for little over 60 percent of the project cost of Rs.16,000 crore, and the Centre and State governments contributing about 20 percent each. But Jayalalitha had announced that the cost of Rs.16,000 crore for the Monorail project had to be entirely met by private operators.
There are fewer than 20 monorail systems in Asia, of which 10 are in Japan. The longest operational monorail is a 23.8 km corridor in Osaka. Even the Monorail Society, an International Advocacy body, describes Jaya’s plan as ‘ambitious’ and ‘staggering’. On the other hand Metro Networks are in operation in 178 cities around the world, with the largest being the 430 km long Shanghai Metro.
Monorail is used only in small stretches and could carry less number of passengers than Metro rail systems. The Mumbai Monorail, which is the only such system that’s currently under construction in India, is a four car train, with a capacity of 140m passengers per car, maximum capacity of the system is 10,000 passengers per hour per direction. The capacity of a Metro system, which can accommodate upto nine cars, is about four to six times more. Thus the capacity-to-cost ratio is better for a Metro system, even though per km construction cost is more. If the aim of the regime is simply to reverse the course of the DMK government’s projects, then it will be a colossal waste of tax payers’ money.
Metro provides a convenient and fast high density transport and best suited for Indian cities with increasing population. It’s also the greenest option. The project should be assessed on the total benefits using NPV over the life span. It’s an investment for future and higher unit cost of construction, or capital cost alone as parameter is not correct as these investments are amortized over life span. On the amortized cost per passenger per km, metros are cheapest. Even if Metro rail construction is costlier it will give back the money within 6 months after the project is over. Monorail will be an utter failure because it is slow, inefficient and scary and can carry very minimal passengers. Monorail is a joke meant for theme parks, zoos and airports.
The government will have to heavily subsidise a monorail system for it to be viable. According to the tender, to concessionaire can charge for the tickets at the rates fixed by the government. The government will undertake to meet the viability gap after negotiating with the concessionaire on mutuality agreed terms to keep the average fare per km affordable to users.
For Chennai Monorail, the private developer will be responsible to design, develop, construct, finance, own, implement, complete, maintain and transfer (DBFOT) the project after 30 years. So it will be almost like private bus operation in the city. In all certainty, Jayalalitha’s project is unlikely to take-off and even if it does so bound to crash land sooner.
There is very popular comedy scene in a Tamil film in which comedian Vadivelu asks the other comedian Ennatha Kannaiah whether his taxi will come, for which the latter in his characteristic style says, ‘Varumm, aanaa varaadhu’ (It’ll come, but won’t).
Likewise, the pipe dream projects announced by Jayalalitha, whether Multi Speciality Hospital cum Medical College or Monorail project (or even the comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme or Solar powered Free Housing Scheme) ‘will come, but will not come!’
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