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Old Secretariat |
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| Located on the main Ring Road (Mahatma Gandhi
Road), just near the Civil Lines Metro Station is the Old Secretariat,
the present seat of the Delhi Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha).
Designed by E. Montague Thomas, the building was constructed
in 1912 to house the secretariat after the British capital shifted
from Calcutta (Kolkata) to Delhi. |
| Considered to be a 'handsome building with a
long front line and two lateral structures' and about 10 acres
of garden, the first sitting of the Legislative Council of the
Central Government was held here in the Chamber on 27th January
1913. Thereafter the Council continued to meet here till the
Parliament House building was completed and its opening ceremony
was performed, on 18th January 1927. Thus the Old Secretariat
building has tremendous historic value, as it was here that
the foundation of India's future Parliament was laid. Many important
bills, legislations, debates, matters of constitutional reforms
and procedures were discussed, evolved and were finally adopted
here. |
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| The first convocation of Delhi University was
also held here in this building on 26th March 1923 and later
the building was allotted to the University on a monthly rental.
After independence it was used for holding academic and cultural
events till the time Delhi got its own Assembly in 1952. The
Assembly was soon disbanded and it then served as a place where
deliberations of the Metropolitan Council used to take place.
Finally it became the seat of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha in 1993
when Delhi again gained an assembly. However, Delhi Assembly
will soon shift to the new secretariat building, which is under
construction near Rajghat. |
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