NEW DELHI: The iconic Old Secretariat building — which houses the Delhi Legislative Assembly — may soon become a heritage site. Unveiling a plan to convert the 115-year-old structure into a heritage site, Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Thursday said that he would take it up with Union Minister of Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Once a symbol of imperialism, the Vidhan Sabha building housed both the Central Legislative Council (Parliament) and a temporary Central Secretariat when the capital of British India was shifted from Kolkata (then Calcutta) to Delhi in December 1911. After Independence, the building saw a lull in activity until Delhi was granted an Assembly in 1952.
However, the Assembly was disbanded in 1956. The building assumed fresh significance in 1966 as a Metropolitan Council was established in Delhi. The building has been the seat of the Delhi legislature since 1993.
The Old Secretariat was designed by E Montague Thomas in 1912 and was completed in eight months. The Assembly had plans in 2022 to renovate the execution house — a two-room suite outside the Assembly chamber that can be accessed via a staircase — and throw it open to the public.