Waste of Rs 350 crore': Cong opposes TS Secretariat demolition

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress leaders met Governor E S L Narasimhan on Monday and submitted him a memorandum opposing the TRS government's move to construct a new Secretariat demolishing the existing buildings.

"We have conveyed our opposition to the Governor about the construction of a new Secretariat by demolishing the present buildings. We urged him to tell the government that it is not a correct decision to demolish the building and construct a new one. We also told him that it will be a waste of Rs 350 crore (for construction of new building)," Telangana Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters after a meeting with the Governor.

The TRS government is planning to build a new Secretariat, reportedly after demolishing the existing buildings.

The state Congress president had earlier written a letter to the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao conveying his party's opposition to the construction of new Secretariat after bringing down the existing structures.

"As President of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Party, I wish to convey that your government decision to demolish the present Secretariat complex and construct a new complex at a huge cost of hundreds of crores of rupees is not a judicious decision and is a mere waste of hundreds of crores of precious tax payers money," Reddy had said in a letter to KCR last week.

Several blocks in the present Secretariat have been constructed in recent times, he had said.

He had found fault with the state government allegedly citing 'vaastu' defects as the reason for allegedly deciding to demolish the buildings.

Reddy said it is astonishing that the Advocate General has submitted to the High Court that the present Secretariat complex doesn't meet fire safety regulation.

How come Rao and the Chief Ministers in undivided Andhra Pradesh had functioned from the same Secretariat if the buildings did not meet fire safety standards, he asked.