Uttar Kanya: Branch Secretariat Of Govt. Of West Bengal at Siliguri

The establishment of the Branch Secretariat of Govt. Of West Bengal at Uttar Kanya, Dabgram, Siliguri is the another bold initiative taken by the present Government, after the creation of North Bengal Development Department. This will cater to the needs of 22% population residing in 24% of the total area of the state comprising of 6 districts ie., Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur & Malda. This not only signals the honest & sincere intention of the Government towards the overall development of North Bengal but this is the first such instance in the country. In the case of state of Jammu & Kashmir the entire state Secretariat shifts to Jammu from Kashmir during winter season and again reverts back to Kashmir during summer.

The drawing & design of Uttar Kanya is totally based on the concept of Green Building. The total estimated amount for the construction of this building, 400 seater auditorium, another adjoining administrative building , a guest house, development of roads and land development, landscaping & peripheral works will be approximately Rs. 6042.00 lakh. After completion of tender formalities & other technical works the actual construction works of the building was started in the month of January, 2013 and the main building has been completed in a record time of less than one year. Close Circuit cameras has been installed at all the critical places and provision for Hot Line between Uttar Kanya & Nabanna , video conference facilities with six districts of North Bengal and bio-metric attendance arrangements will be made very soon.

As per the concept of Green Building provision of rain water harvesting ( under ground water tank to store the rain water), solar lighting (to save electric consumption), use of LED lights ( to save electric consumption) and setting up of a Sewerage Treatment Plant have been incorporated . To prevent the fire hazards all modern equipments for detection and dousing the fire have been installed at Uttar Kanya.

An artificial lilly pond has been excavated with Green House and fruit garden for the beautification of the land. Decorative plants like Royal Palm, Champagne Palm, Bismark Palm & various flowering plants have been planted in the front side garden and along the approach road to the Secretariat.

The super built up area of Uttar Kanya i.e., Branch Secretariat Building is approximately 60,000 sq feet. Provision has been made for pantry, security monitoring room, press corner, press briefing hall, waiting lounges, canteen building, meeting halls and conference hall.

There are provision of 20 nos. of office chamber for Spl. Secretaries/ Addl. Secretaries & Joint Secretaries of different departments in the first floor of Uttar Kanya, besides three staff rooms, one meeting hall and one pantry.

It is expected that Hon’ble Chief Minister will come to Uttar Kanya as frequently as her busy schedule permits and most of the high level meetings, especially of the issues pertaining to North Bengal, will be held at Uttar Kanya. All MICs and Secretaries on tour to North Bengal are expected to discharge their functions from Uttar Kanya. The Secretariat is fully capable of hosting a full fledged Cabinet Meeting in the Conference Hall. Besides this offices of 20 line Departments will start functioning from Uttar Kanya within February 2014 and the list of Departments are as follows:-

i) Branch of CMO
ii) N.B.D.D.
iii) Hill Affairs Department (Principal Secretary)
iv) Tea / Cinchona Directorate (C&l)
v) Officers / staff from :-
            a) Director of Agriculture
            b) R.C.S.
            c) BCW
            d) School Education / M.D.M
            e) I.C.D.S.
            f) I.G, North Bengal
            g) P.W.D.
            h) Housing
            i) Labour (mainly plantation labour wing)
            j) H & F.W.
            k) A.R.D.
            l) Local Bodies
            m) MSSE&T
vi) One representative of the Finance Department as F.A.
vii) Others as may be found suitable later on.