Telangana sets up panel now to study decision to build new Secretariat

Hyderabad: In the wake of a High Court bench led by Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan taking up several petitions on the issue, the state government on Monday constituted a technical committee to evaluate the condition of the existing Assembly and Secretariat.

On Monday, the Cabinet sub-committee constituted by the government to recommend construction of the Secretariat and Assembly buildings met and decided to constitute a technical committee to study the state of the two buildings.

The committee will study the facilities available in the Secretariat and Assembly buildings and to recommend modifications, improvements and additions. The committee can also recommend the requirement of construction of a new Secretariat and Assembly complex.

On July 3, Justice Chauhan had asked a petitioner whether the decision to demolish was taken by an “incompetent authority” or whether the government had acted beyond it jurisdiction.

The committee will be headed by Mr Ganapathi Reddy, engineer-in-chief of the transport, roads and buildings and national highways department.

Its members are engineers-in chief P. Ravinder Rao (roads and buildings), C. Muralidhar (irrigation) and M. Satyanarayana Reddy (panchayat raj).

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao laid the foundation stone for the two buildings on June 27. This was followed by a slew of petitions against the demolition of the 150-year-old Errum Manzil.