Seat of power set for pride, glory, honour

Hyderabad: In a “moment of pride for the entire Telangana society” Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will inaugurate the newly-built integrated Secretariat complex on the banks of historic Hussainsagar amid great fanfare, following religious rituals, on Sunday.

The nerve centre of the administration is named after Dr B.R. Ambedkar, for the first time in the country by any state, with a noble cause of, as the Chief Minister put out in a statement on Saturday, highlighting the need for equal rights to SC, ST, BC, minorities, women and poor. “We named the new Secretariat after Ambedkar with a philosophical and ideological understanding and to achieve the target of providing an able governance to people,” he said.

While the new facility, built with a “vision to serve the future generations too”, provides administrative convenience, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi is confident that Chandrashekar Rao would puncture the oft-repeated criticism of farmhouse governance by the Opposition parties by making regular visits to the Secretariat henceforth.

The inauguration, BRS leaders feel, comes after Chandrashekar Rao successfully mitigated the allegations of not having done justice by unveiling a mammoth statue of Ambedkar for Dalits besides implementing the Dalit Bandhu welfare scheme aimed at providing ₹10 lakh assistance to every Dalit family, for the past two years.

“As Opposition cannot take on us on development, be it in social sector or infrastructure, which is visible in the last eight years, it tries to survive on criticism that Chief Minister will not go to Secretariat, went back on his promise of making a Dalit the Chief Minister or ignoring the sacrifices of the martyrs of Telangana movement, which is uncalled for,” a senior minister said.

BRS leaders were of the view that the trio of the Ambedkar statue, Secretariat and the upcoming Telangana martyrs’ memorial in the heart of the state capital will give a fitting reply to critics. This is in addition to massive irrigation projects like Kaleswaram, renovated Yadadri temple, and integrated collectorate complexes in all the districts, besides largescale health facilities in other parts of the state.

Opposition leaders, contrary to their criticism of public fora, acknowledge that the grandeur with which these structures were built will bring in a lot of positive publicity for Chandrashekar Rao.

“We may dismiss statue as a political gimmick or a mere eyewash. But, we have to admit that it gives a great sense of pride among marginalised sections and for the next few months people from all over the State or even country would throng the statue and naturally appreciate KCR,” a former BJP legislator said. 

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister congratulated every person, mainly the labour force, who contributed to building the “highly advanced, most environment-friendly and inspiring structure”. He greeted the people of Telangana on the occasion and assured them that the new Secretariat would have a great influence on the administration and help in bringing qualitative change in serving people.