CHENNAI: A lawyer has moved the Madras high court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu govt to abandon its plan to build a new secretariat at Pattinapakkam in Chennai, as it would put the public and fishermen in irreparable loss and hardship.The plea moved by advocate R S Tamilvendan is likely to be taken up for hearing by the first bench headed by the Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari in the coming week.According to the petitioner, he came to know through news reports on Aug 10 that the state govt was going to build a new secretariat at a cost of Rs1,200 crore at a place owned by the Tamil Nadu housing board located in the Pattinampakkam area.“I was shocked when I heard the news. If the new secretariat is built at the proposed location, the scheme of providing houses to the poor will be affected. Since the existing houses were dilapidated, those houses were to be demolished and allocated to the public for the construction of new houses,” he said.“If the secretariat is set up in the fishing villages of Pattinampakkam, the welfare of the fishermen will be affected,” he added.A new secretariat was built by the then DMK govt spending several crores of rupees but later it was converted into a hospital by the succeeding govt.“The present secretariat building (in Fort St George) is in a good condition and is close to the railway station, Madras high court, bus stand, and govt hospital. In this situation, if the secretariat is shifted, it will be very difficult for the public to come and go and the entire area will be severely affected due to traffic congestion,” he added.He said the present govt had announced that the state was in a financial crisis. “So instead of spending Rs1,200 crore on constructing a new building, the existing secretariat building can be renovated and used,” he said.