Hunt for new secretariat location to begin soon: Delhi CM Gupta
Currently, the top brass of the government function out of Players' Building, popularly known as Delhi Secretariat, which was planned and built as a hotel to accommodate players for the 1982 Asian Games.
Gupta made the announcement after visiting the Women and Child Development Department office at Kashmere Gate. She expressed strong dissatisfaction over the dilapidated condition of the office, stating that seeing the building in such a state was deeply distressing.
She stressed the need to build a new, well-organised, and integrated secretariat to house all departments.
During Sheila Dikshit's tenure as the Chief Minister, the secretariat was shifted to Players' Building from Civil Lines to provide better facilities to ministers and officers. The existing building does not have the required space to accommodate all the top officials.
Offices of the revenue commissioner, labour commissioner, GST commissioner, education secretary, transport commissioner, excise commissioner, secretary of food and civil supplies, and several senior officers are located at different locations outside the secretariat.
Delhi government officials have previously pointed out that having offices spread across different locations leads to significant time lost in travel and traffic congestion, especially when attending meetings at the Secretariat.
The situation is even more challenging for officers handling multiple departmental responsibilities, as they frequently have to travel to various, often far-flung, offices to carry out their duties. Offices within a single building or at least in the same vicinity would help streamline operations and save time.
Taking a dig at the previous AAP government, CM Rekha Gupta said, 'Those who called themselves an 'educated government' were busy building lavish offices for themselves but failed to provide basic facilities essential for the working of our officials. The ones who spent Rs 70 crore on their own office couldn't spend even a few crores on these departments.'
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