Telangana govt says Secretariat is overcrowded

Hyderabad: The state government told the Telangana High Court on Tuesday that it was firm on demolishing the existing Secretariat and Errum Manzil and construct new buildings.

Principal secretary, roads and buildings, Sunil Sharma explained in two affidavits that the existing Assembly and Secretariat buildings lack fire safety and security measures. Upon a direction from the court, Mr Sharma filed separate counter-affidavits on the PILs filed against the proposals to demolish Errum Manzil and the Secretariat buildings.

The court asked why government needed a new Assembly when the existing one had accommodated more MLAs and MLCs in undivided AP. In reply, government stated that the building was constructed during the late Nizam’s regime and consisted of a town hall with 25 rooms and five committee halls.

“Due to the dearth of facilities and space in the Assembly, bureaucrats and officials are forced to spend their time in the corridors of the Assembly during the sessions. Moreover there is no proper accommodation for the Speaker, Chief Minister, Deputy Speaker, Leader of Opposition and ministers. Due to the space crunch, ministers have to sit in the common hall,” Mr Sharma said.

The government explained that Errum Manzil does not find mention in the Telangana Heritage (Protection, Preservation, Conservation, and Maintenance) Act 2017.

Hence, the Cabinet subcommittee took a decision to demolish the building.

Defending the decision to demolish the Secretariat buildings, Mr Sharma explained that the petitioners had been vaguely saying that the buildings would continue for 50 years. He submitted in tabular form, detailed information about the 10 blocks in the Secretariat and their condition. He said that the G Block was built in 1888 and was in a completely dilapidated condition. The K Block was built in 1964 and most of the rest were built 40 years ago.

As per the affidavit, the available plinth area in nine blocks, excluding the old G-Block, was 2,07,279 square feet but the actually occupancy was more than four times greater at 9,16,681 square feet.

The government said that keeping the space crunch in view, lack of facilities and accommodation to house the legislature and officials, government had conceptualised the construction of a new integrated assembly and Secretariat buildings. Alleging that the petitioners had moved court with political interest and malice,  government requested the court to dismiss all the petitions filed against the demolition of Errum Manzil and Secretariat buildings.