The 102-year-old Tamil Nadu legislature has been holding its sittings at Fort St George, a prominent vestige of the colonial era, for most of these years. The Fort has also been the prime seat of power of the State government. Yet, the idea of shifting the Assembly-Secretariat complex to different places caught the attention of the authorities at different points of time.
More than 40 years ago, the authorities had spotted the inadequacy of Fort St. George in accommodating the requirements of a growing welfarist government, which has been co-existing with the legislature. In May 1983, the then AIADMK government, headed by M.G. Ramachandran, issued an order to raise a structure that would house the Secretariat. But this was given up subsequently.
