Stop Secretariat's demolition, says Uttam Kumar Reddy

Hyderabad: The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on Monday took the issue of demolition of the Secretariat building and construction of a new one to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan.

TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy led the Congress delegation to the Governor and submitted a memorandum seeking an urgent intervention and to stop demolition of the building to avoid waste of public funds.

The Governor promised to look into the matter. “The Chief Minister has been repeatedly saying that the Secretariat building is not as per vastu. If it’s true, how can Telang-ana be the richest state in the country, a revenue surplus state and investment destination? How did the state grow to this level? Telangana society should ponder over this,” he said after meeting the Governor.

“Construction of new buildings by spending hundreds of crores is against democratic norms in a country like ours. This is not a correct decision we feel,” he remarked.

Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy added that it was intriguing that while the Chief Minister was saying that the existing Secretariat was being demolished due to bad vastu, the state advocate-general had claimed in the High Court that the building did not meet fire safety regulations.

“We have doubts over these reasons. How can the government function in a building for two and half years without fire safety? The CM and his Cabinet colleagues functioned from this building. When there are no funds for public purposes, why should the government waste money?” he asked.

Besides Mr Reddy, the delegation included Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Mr Mohd Ali Shabbir, CLP leader Mr K. Jana Reddy, Rajya Sabha MP Mr M.A. Khan, Mr T. Jeevan Reddy, MLA and former minister Mr Danam Nagender, Ex MP Mr Anjan Kumar Yadav and others.