The iconic Writers Buildings in the heart of Kolkata is all set to get its lost glory back once again as the seat of governance, as the BJP has decided that its Chief Minister will not function from ‘Nabanna,’ from where the Mamata Banerjee administration functioned.
According to a senior government official, the nearly 250-year-old Writer’s Buildings, which remained the seat of power during the Congress and CPI(M) government in the state, will again be the state secretariat. When the Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee came to power in the state in 2011, the CMO was housed in the Writers Buildings for a brief period. But after two years it moved to ‘Nabanna,’ a new 14-storey structure at Shibpur in Howrah. Nabanna was basically built for a project of the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners.
According to an official, till the last remaining maintenance work at the Writers Buildings is completed, the new CM is likely to function from the annex building of the West Bengal Assembly. He, however, added that no final decision has been taken in this regard.
Chief Secretary Dushmanta Narial has held an emergency meeting with Assembly Secretary Samarendra Nath Das to discuss the proposal.
A senior assembly official confirmed that they have been asked to keep the annex building ready and take into account every infrastructural issue, considering security and other aspects.
This majestic three-storey red building, built in 1780 by a self-styled builder named Thomas Lyon, followed the neoclassical style with Corinthian columns. The structure was initially a boarding place for the junior-level clerks called ‘Writers.’ This is why it came to be known as Writers Buildings. Later, Warren Hastings changed it to an administrative office. The complex houses a few buildings.
The Writers Buildings witnessed a daring attack by freedom fighters Benoy Basu, Badal Gupta, and Dinesh Gupta in 1930, in which Lt Col NS Simpson, the IG (Prisons), infamous for his brutal torture of Indian prisoners in jail was shot dead.
After independence, it became the seat of power of the West Bengal government.
From the first Chief Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghosh of the Congress in 1947 to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of the CPI(M) in 2011, all CMs functioned from this building till Mamata Banerjee of the TMC left it for Nabanna.
Now, the BJP has made it a point to govern the state from Writers Buildings.
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