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NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi is likely to move to his new office at the newly built Sewa Teerth complex near Vayu Bhawan in the next one week. This will be the first time since independence when the PMO moves out of the seat of power at South Block built by British architect Herbert Baker.Officials said the office housing the PMO is fully ready. They added that the new PMO will be operational any time between Jan 14 (Makar Sankranti) and Jan 23 (Subhas Chandra Bose Jayanti). “Kharmas, considered inauspicious in Vedic astrology to avoid new ventures, is ending with Makar Sankranti on Wednesday. So, the shifting of PMO to the new building can happen anytime from Wednesday onwards. All preparations have been completed in the past two weeks,” said an official.South Block and North Block situated in the Raisina Hills were built in 1931. The history of PMO traces from a small PM’s Secretariat (PMS) in 1947 to provide basic administrative help to the PM. The first major structural change happened in 1964 after Lal Bahadur Shastri became PM when PMS got statutory status via Allocation of Business Rules. The authority of the office increased significantly during Indira Gandhi’s tenure and in 1977 this was officially renamed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) during the Morarji Desai administration. The Cabinet Secretariat has shifted from Rashtrapati Bhawan to ‘Seva Teerth-2’ in September and ‘Seva Teerth-3’ is designated for the National Security Adviser’s (NSA) office. The NSA is likely to shift to the new complex in the next one week as well.The PMO and subsequently defence ministry moving out of South Block in the next few weeks will mean the country’s power centre completely shifting out of Raisina Hills, which officials said is another example of govt’s thrust on getting rid of the colonial past and “mentality of slavery”. The North Block has been vacated completely with ministries moving out of the iconic building to new Bhawans that have come up along Kartavya Path.
