One of the good things that has emerged from the fire that destroyed Kalas Mahal (called as Chepauk Palace) last month is that in Fort St George (founded in 1644 and from where the current administration rules), more than 100 pictorial signboards have come up to warn people that this heritage structure is fragile in many places. Some of the signboards have come up at the nearby Namakkal Kavignar Maligai, where many government departments are located. The signboards include warnings such as “use staircase in case of emergency.” The fire department has also conducted fire safety programmes for employees at the Secretariat.
Of course the heritage structure could have been better preserved if CM Jayalalitha was not adamant about ruling from the “kottai” and instead continued from the monstrous Assembly-Secretariat complex that Karunanidhi built and ruled from over the last year. Chandralekha, a retired IAS officer, says that Fort St George was too small to house departments and as a result government departments are scattered all over the city including Saidapet. As a result when “review” meetings are held (which are all the time), the staff has to go to Fort St George where the respective minister is and that means time and money wasted whereas the new complex is huge enough to accommodate most departments and has the Rajaji hall, the MLAs hostel, etc nearby.
But when the CM, who is always described as bright with a quick grasp of things chooses to ignore logic— and the sheer inconvenience to people— to satisfy her ego, what does one say? Incidentally even her idea to convert the assembly-secretariat complex into a super- speciality hospital has earned her no brownie points and has been panned as an unviable notion. Even the Madras high court told her to keep “hands off” the structure till the PIL, praying that the new complex built with tax payers’s money amounting to about Rs 1200 crores, is decided.
Incidentally, the complex that sprawls over 9.3 lakh square foot owes the Chennai corporation multiple lakhs in property tax arrears. The structure, which has a ground plus six floors was touted as the building which would attract the highest property tax. The corporation’s revenue department had fixed Rs 85.02 lakhs as the property tax for half a year.
Build it, They Will Come
Here’s the difference between how politicians treat memorials to leaders who are vote catchers and heritage buildings. They give Rs 8.90 crore to memorials as CM Jayalalitha did two weeks ago and are ready to tear heritage buildings down after they have been ravaged by a fire that mysteriously started. The memorials of both CN Annadurai, who died in February 1969, and M G Ramachandran, who passed away in December 1987, which have been constructed on the Marina, were earmarked for renovation, the government had told the assembly last August. When the CM sanctioned the crores recently, it was a follow-up to that. While Anna’s memorial will sport a new look after the renovation costing Rs 1.20 crore, the memorial for the AIADMK founder, MGR, will have a new front façade in addition to the renovation and it will cost the tax payer Rs 4.30 crore. Incidentally, while there is a clamour from lovers of heritage and even the courts have to direct the state to preserve old buildings, actions to honour vote catchers are always taken suo moto by politicians.