HC likely to get portion of New Secretariat on Aug 25

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to hand over a portion of the New Secretariat building on Strand Road to the Calcutta High Court on August 25 for facilitating work related to the latter.

There was an urgent need to shift some branches related to the Calcutta High Court to some other place as it was getting cramped for space with the volume of work increasing by leaps and bounds.

The New Secretariat building being located close to the high court was one of the best options available for expansion.

According to Nabanna sources, a meeting was held in the month of June between Banerjee and Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Prakash Srivastava where the matter was discussed.

Accordingly, Chief Secretary Hari Krishna Dwivedi held follow up meetings and supervised things for the shift of some government offices located in New Secretariat to make way for the extension.

If everything goes as per planning then the formal handover programme will be held at the ninth floor of Block B of the building in presence of the Chief Minister, Chief Justice and some other Justices of the Calcutts High

Court..

According to sources, some of the departments that have been shifted include Public Health Engineering and a small part of the Housing department.

However, departments like Labour, Co Operation and Tourism that are housed at A Block will remain as it is.