Ranchi, Sept. 9: The Sri Krishna Sinha Institute of Public Administration (Skipa) aka Administrative Training Institute will double up as the Vidhan Sabha for a day to allow Arjun Munda’s government to face a mandatory floor test.

A “makeshift” Assembly became necessary as the original Vidhan Sabha is being renovated extensively and is unlikely to be ready before September 29, the deadline for consultant-cum-executing agency Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited to wrap up the Rs 2.34 crore project.

Though Governor M.O.H. Farook has directed Munda to prove his majority by September 17, BJP sources said Munda was ready for a floor test on September 14.

This would be the first time since the state came into existence nearly 10 years ago that an Assembly session would be conducted outside the Vidhan Sabha premises. “The Vidhan Sabha will not be ready for the special session as it is currently under renovation. We are weighing other options and Skipa is one of them,” Speaker C.P. Singh told The Telegraph. He later confirmed that Skipa would be the venue.

The last time round, when Shibu Soren was at the helm of affairs and told to prove his government’s majority by May 31, the proceedings were to take place in Skipa as then the Vidhan Sabha façade was being renovated. However, the JMM supremo and then chief minister resigned a couple of days before the governor’s deadline, paving the way for imposition of President’s rule in the state on June 1.

The inordinate delay in starting the renovation work inside the Vidhan Sabha has left the state agencies red in the face. The renovation of the state Assembly should have been over by now. However, delay in granting approval to a drawing of Godrej and Boyce by building construction department engineers resulted in the deadline being extended to September 29. Though the work started in April, the interior renovation plans were only approved on August 19.

Speaker Singh held a review of the ongoing construction work yesterday.