Commissioner Period

• Shri V P Menon arrived and stayed in Lal Kothi. He was advisor to the Indian government on proposed merger of princely states with Indian Union,
• Finally, after a princely rule of 250 years, Bhopal was merged with the Union of India on 1st June 1949.
• Nawab Hamidullah was the ruler of Bhopal at the time.
• Bhopal became a Centrally Administered State under "Part C" for a period of 5 years.
• Bhopal State included the present-day districts of Bhopal, Raisen, and Sehore.
• Tri-colour of independent India was unfurled at the Lal Kothi for the first time on 1st June 1949.



26th Jan ceremony by last Commissioner



• The government of India appointed an administrative head for Bhopal, called the Chief Commissioner
• Lal Kothi was chosen as the official residence of the Chief Commissioner and was renamed Commissioner House.

The salient features of this period are as follows :-

• Elections for Legislative Assembly and Parliament were held for the first time in Bhopal State in 1952.
• Congress won the elections, and a 30-member State Assembly was sworn in.
• The composition of the Assembly was as follows :-
• 28 - Congress
• 01 - Hindu Mahasabha
• 01 - Independent
• Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of the 1st democratic Government of Bhopal on 20th March, 1952 at Commissioner House.
• Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma was the youngest Chief Minister at that time in India.
• On 20th April 1952, the then State Minister at the Centre Shri Gopal Swami Aiyangar inaugurated the State Assembly.
• The Hamidia Library served as the Vidhan Sabha in the Commissioner's period at Bhopal. Today, it is the office of the Lokayukta.

Hamidia Library - First Vidhan Sabha of Bhopal

• Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru paid 11 visits to Bhopal.
• He was so enamoured of Bhopal that he planned to make it the 2nd capital of India.
• The ruler of Bhopal never interfered in the government's functioning.
• The ruler of Bhopal donated land for the construction of the T.B. hospital at Idgah Hills.
• Maharani Laxmi Bai college for girls was started in 1952. The building in which it was started was originally the office of the conservator of forests.
• Maulana Azad College of Technology was set up in 1953. Initially, the classes were held at the present-day Polytechnic building. Now the MACT has been upgraded to a National Institute of Technology. Very shortly, it will be granted the status of an Indian Institute of Technology.
• Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Polytechnic was started in 1955.
• Gandhi Medical College came up in Dec 1955. To begin with, classes were conducted at the Polytechnic.
• The PGBT college was established in 1956.
• The British currency continued, alongwith the Indian currency.

Commissioners of Bhopal and their tenures

Other Senior Officials During Commissioners Period

Next . . . Birth of MP