Agartala, Sep 20 (Inditop.com) The civil secretariat – the headquarters of the Tripura administration since 1838 when the then king made Agartala his capital and even after the princely state’s accession to India in October 1949 – has been shifted to the newly constructed complex on the city’s outskirts from its present home in the royal palace.
The palace, which is a hundred years old, and the other majestic buildings, which until now housed the civil secretariat, legislative assembly and headquarters of different departments, would now be converted into a museum, libraries of international standards and other public utilities.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar Saturday evening inaugurated the sprawling four-storeyed, 270-room civil secretariat building at Khejur Bagan, 9 km north of the state capital.
“There was a situation when mothers had sold their children due to poverty and a large number of people left the northeastern state for their livelihood. During the 31-year rule of Left Front government, the situation has been changed significantly,” Sarkar said at the occasion.
“To offer a people-friendly service and administration to the masses, the extremely large building with latest architecture would help the government as all top and middle ranking officials would sit under one roof in seven different blocks,” he said.
The towering, earthquake proof new civil secretariat – the biggest in eastern India – was constructed by the West Bengal government owned engineering company, Macintosh Burn Ltd., at an estimated cost of Rs.2 billion.
The work had been financed by the Eleventh and Twelfth Finance Commissions and the North Eastern Council (NEC).
In his speech, Public Works Department and Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury said: “These high-rise constructions are the symbol of fast-growing development of India’s second smallest state.”
According to him, in terms of overall growth and human development, Tripura has already achieved similar progress as the leading Indian states.
“If there was no terrorism, the northeastern state of Tripura could be the model state in India,” Chowdhury said, adding: “Tripura is the only state in India where no farmer has committed suicide, no case of starvation death and is almost a beggar free region.”
Besides the secretariat, buildings have been built to house the legislative assembly, the Agartala bench of the Guwahati High Court and other important government installations at the 170 hectares Khejur Bagan area, renamed as new capital complex.
“In 1838, the capital had been shifted to Agartala from Puran Habeli, 12 km north of here, by the then king Krishna Kishore Manikya Bahadur,” said Panna Lal Roy, a writer and historian of Tripura’s royal era.
“To effectively rule the royal territory, which comprised parts of the then east Pakistan, now Bangladesh, the capital was shifted to the present location,” Roy told Inditop.
The princely state had merged with the Indian Union in October 1949.
