Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday asked the state government why it was proposing to demolish buildings at the Secretariat that were constructed less than a decade ago, when a technical committee appointed to test the structures did not recommend their demolition.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy was hearing a plea filed Prof. P.L. Vishweswara Rao, vice president of the Telangana Jana Samiti, challenging the government’s decision to demolish the existing Secretariat at Saifabad and bulding a new complex there.
The bench asked the state government why it wanted the demolish the North H Block and South H Block, having a plinth area of around 40,000 square feet, which were built in 2012 as per the affidavit submitted by the government before the High Court.
It asked that instead of demolishing all the 10 blocks, why did the government not consider constructing new buildings just by demolishing the 131-year-old G Block and those built five decades ago.
Mr Chikkudu Prabhakar, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the government decision was a sheer waste of public money and the government should not be allowed to do this.
Citing Supreme Court judgments to control wastage of public funds, Mr Prabhakar said the government decision was illegal, unreasonable, unfair, irrational, perverse, whimsical and made a mockery of Articles 14,19 and 21 of the Constitution.
Additional Advocate General J. Ramachandra Rao said the buildings has become unviable and had many safety problems. He referred to a report of the Director-General, Fire Services, in support of his claim.
He also submitted the report of the technical committee which went into the issue.
The bench noted that the technical committee had been appointed only after the Cabinet had taken the decision to construct new buildings.
It asked the AAG why the government was using this report when it nowhere said the current building should be demolished. It only spoke of fire risks involved in some blocks and suggested establishment of a free passage for the fire brigade to enter freely in case of fire and setting up of water sprinklers etc.
The AAG said that if any untoward incidents occurs at the existing place, there would be no chance of saving the lives of VIPs and employees working there. The bench posted the case to Tuesday.
HC raps govt over lack of RTI portal
The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the state government and the office of the Telangana State Information Commission (TSIC) to file their stand on a PIL that sought a direction to them to upload 17 items of data of all public authorities on the RTI website.
The PIL said the data was required under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The government and TSIC should also create a web portal for filing RTI applications and appeals, payment of fee and to provide other facilities. A division bench comprising CJ Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy was dealing the PIL that also pointed out the failure of the government in complying its obligation to provide online filing of RTI applications as per Section 6(1) of the RTI Act.
