After HC nod, Telangana to have a new Secretariat
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, July 7
The Telangana Government has started the demolition of the state Secretariat building that it shared with Andhra Pradesh since the division of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh in 2014.
The move comes a week after the Telangana High Court gave a go-ahead for a new Telangana state Secretariat.
The new building will be built at a cost of Rs 400 crore at the same site opposite the famous Hussain Sagar Lake.
The move of the government to demolish the old secretariat and build a new one when the building was relatively recent has evoked a sharp reaction from the people, terming it as wasteful expenditure.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the high court restraining the government from demolishing the old structure.
The court has now cleared the new construction after looking at the plans of the government.
To prevent any demonstrations and protests, the government blocked all roads, erected barricades leading to the secretariat and diverted the vehicular traffic.
It deployed bulldozers, earthmovers, and other machinery for the demolition work which began in the early hours of Tuesday. The restrictions in the busy area near Hussain Sagar Lake in the heart of the city led to traffic jams at various points.
All the 10 blocks spread over 25 acres will be demolished, thereby ending yet another symbol of Hyderabad heritage that will also become history.
One of the buildings was constructed in 1888 during the times of seventh Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last ruler of erstwhile Hyderabad state.
Known as Saifabad Palace and built-in European architecture, it used to house the office of Nizam’s prime minister till Hyderabad’s accession with the Indian Union in 1948.
Subsequently, the palace designated as ‘G’ block (Sarvahitha) served as the office of the chief ministers of undivided Andhra Pradesh up till N.T Rama Rao.
His successor M. Channa Reddy built the ‘C’ block and shifted the chief minister’s office and all his successors till undivided Andhra Pradesh’s last chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy functioned from there.
The ‘G’ block, one of the last surviving pieces of architecture of Nizam’s administration has since been lying unused and reduced to the dustbin to dump old furniture.
When Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in June 2014, both states functioned from here.
While ‘C’ block was allotted to Telangana, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) continued to function from his office cum residence at “Pragati Bhavan”.
It is said that the chief minister was advised by his astrologers not to go there as the Vaastu of the entire secretariat complex was inauspicious.
The chief minister has laid the foundation stone for the new administrative complex at the same location on June 27 last year. But the work was stalled due to a PIL against the construction saying it would add to the unnecessary burden on the state’s exchequer.
Now that the court has cleared the construction, the new secretariat is expected to be built in a record one year.
The Chief Minister’s Office today released the design of the proposed secretariat building saying it may be approved.
The government plans to complete the work by June 2, 2021. Mumbai-based architect Hafeez Contractor has designed the five-lakh square feet complex to be built at a cost of Rs 400 crore.
After the Secretariat building, a new Vidhan Sabha building at the Irrum Manzil too may become a reality, much to the disappointment of voices for heritage preservations.
