New PMO to be named Sewa Teerth, Raj Bhavans Lok Bhavans

The government has decided to call the newly built Prime Minister’s Office complex as “Sewa Teerth” parallel to an ongoing plan to rename all Raj Bhavans across India as Lok Bhavans.

“India’s public institutions are undergoing a quiet but profound shift. The idea of governance is moving from power (satta) to service (seva) and from authority to responsibility. This change is not just administrative. It is cultural and moral,” said top official sources commenting on the near completed PMO complex under the Central Vista Redevelopment Plan.

The Sewa Teerth complex will house the Cabinet Secretariat, the National Security Council Secretariat and India House, a venue for meetings with the visiting heads of states and delegates.

All government offices, barring the PMO and PM residence, have shifted to the redeveloped area.

Sources said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, spaces of governance were being reshaped to reflect national duties and transparency.

“Every name, every building and every symbol now points to a simple idea. Government exists to serve. Rajpath became Kartavya Path. A landmark street now carries a message. Power is not an entitlement. It is duty,” said officials.

Earlier, when the Ministry of Home Affairs vacated North Block — one of the two Secretariat buildings designed by British architect Herbert Baker in the early 1900s to serve the governance needs of the British Raj — the government described the move as a shedding of colonial legacy.

It was in 1926-27 that the government departments under the British rule completed their transfer from temporary pre-war quarters in Delhi’s Civil Lines area to the Secretariat buildings — North and South Block — designed by Baker on the Raisina Hill.

The blocks, each three stories high and nearly a quarter of a mile long, housed every administrative department of the government.

“Indian Summer: Lutyens, Baker and Imperial India” records that the ‘dominating hilltop position of the two Secretariat buildings, a Sahib site removed from ordinary traffic, was meant to impress Indians and inspire a sense of reverence in all who approached’.