The Hemant Soren government is likely to prefer the old Vidhan Sabha building at Jagannathpur for the three-day Assembly session starting from January 6 instead of the new building at Dhurwa built at a cost of around Rs 465 crore that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated on September 12.

Newly anointed minister Alamgir Alam said no final decision had been taken in this regard, but they had “verbally discussed” the matter. “Popular opinion is that the old building is better for the time being as the new building is not completely furnished and there will be logistic issues,” Alam said.

A source said that another minister of the Hemant Soren government, Satyanand Bhokta, felt that the government should use the old Assembly building to conduct the budget session in March.

Employees of the Jharkhand Assembly secretariat are confused over the January 6-8 session of the Assembly.

“We have to allocate seats to MLAs, which has to be done before the session starts, but we don’t have official intimation on whether the session will be held at the old building or the new one. In case the new building is the venue, we will have to shift our offices and entire documents,” said a senior Assembly official.

One of the dream projects of then CM Raghubar Das, the new building at Dhurwa, with a stunning dome, is magnificent but ill-fated. Constructed by the Ram Kripal Construction Company, the new building could host only one special session of the Assembly on September 13 this year.

But the JMM, which was then the principal Opposition party, boycotted the session alleging that the Raghubar Das government had deliberately violated protocol by not mentioning the name of the leader of Opposition Hemant Soren on the inauguration list.

The new Assembly building also caught fire as recently as on December 4, but the damage was not major.

Sources in Jharkhand police said that preliminary investigation by the forensic team suggested substandard materials were used in the electric wiring of the building. But it is yet not confirmed whether it was a case of short-circuit or sabotage.

A senior Assembly employee clarified the status of the new building, “A special session of the Assembly has been held here but the building hasn’t been handed over to the government. Technically speaking, the government can’t use this building for any purpose right away. Many jobs are pending. After the building suffered damage in the fire, work was further delayed,” he said.