PMO seeks report on construction of new Secretariat complex at Bison

Hyderabad: The Prime Minister’s Office has asked the Telangana state government to clarify complaints it has received from the public against the construction of the new Secretariat complex at Bison Polo Grounds.

The PMO has received several complaints from individuals and civil society organisations on its online public grievances system, which it has referred to the Chief Secretary and R&B secretary and sought clarifications within two weeks.

The complainants pointed out that half of the buildings in the existing Secretariat are lying vacant as the AP government has shifted its Secretariat to Amaravati. If the Centre ensures that AP hands over the vacant blocks to Telangana at the earliest, it would be more than enough to house all the departments comfortably and constructing a new Secretariat at a cost of Rs 500 crore was a waste of public money.

Complainants have also claimed that the new Secretariat will shrink the open lung space in the Secunderabad Canton-ment, create traffic issues and deprive the public of a sports facility. Some petitioners complained that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has not set foot in the existing Secretariat since he shifted to the sprawling nine-acre Pragathi Bhavan in Begumpet in October 2016, costing the state exchequer nearly Rs 100 crore, and has been running the administration from there.

KCR spent crores on Secretariat, say citizens
Other petitioners pointed out that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had made many changes and renovations in the existing Secretariat building to make it Vastu-compliant, which also involved expenditure of crores of rupees. If these blocks are demolished or left vacant again, large amounts of public money will have gone down the drain.

Though hundreds of complaints were received by the PMO’s grievance cell, only 21 were referred to the state government for clarification as others were on similar lines. “The PMO has asked the CS and R&B secretary to clarify each of these 21 clarifications separately and submit it to the PMO within two weeks. The complaints have been sent to R&B department to file answers,” official sources said.

Once the PMO gets the replies, it will forward them to complainants online. TS claimed that the Centre had in-principle approved the hand over of Bison Polo ground.