Opposition parties term secretariat buildings demolition as black day in Telangana's history

HYDERABAD: The opposition parties including Congress, BJP, CPI, CPM, TDP and TJS strongly condemned the demolition of structurally-fit secretariat buildings and said it was a black day in the history of the Telangana state.


Telangana Congress president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy said this day would be remembered as “black day” in the history of Telangana as a “Tughlaq administration" has demolished the secretariat only to satisfy the superstitious beliefs of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who has vasthu phobia. It is a glaring misuse of public money during coronavirus pandemic crisis.

“The demolition of secretariat buildings amounts to playing with the lives of 4 crore people of Telangana. The courts intervene when the government fails to act as per law but in the case of secretariat demolition, people were disappointed with the judiciary,” he said.

Uttam said the verdict of the High Court permitting construction of the new secretariat buildings was challenged in the Supreme Court and the matter was to be heard on Wednesday. However, the old structure was demolished in a midnight operation only to nullify the possible stay by the Supreme Court

“The new secretariat complex is being constructed to benefit the contractors with a Rs 1,000 crore deal. The demand by the Congress to use the secretariat buildings as

temporary Covid-19 hospital

or quarantine centre was also not considered,” he said.

BJP State President and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the state could have completed a state-of-the-art hospital for the poor to treat coronavirus patients with Rs 500 crore it will be spending on building the new secretariat.

BJP chief spokesperson

K Krishna Sagar Rao

said while the chief ministers in the country are busy building infrastructure to accommodate covid-19 patients, unfortunately Telangana has a CM who is busy demolishing the existing infrastructure which could have been easily turned into a facility to accommodate thousands of Covid-19 patients. The secretariat buildings could have been converted into a 20,000-bed facility, he said.

CPM state secretary

Tammineni Veerabhadram

said: “Why is TRS government demolishing hundreds of crores of rupees secretariat building. The government should use all the money to combat coronavirus spread. It is sad that another Rs 500 crore would be spent on construction of a new complex,” he said.

CPI state secretary Chada Venkat Reddy: “There are buildings constructed just 20 years back in the secretariat which too are being demolished. People should teach TRS a befitting lesson. The government has taken a bad decision to demolish the buildings during prevailing coronavirus situation,” he said.

TJS president M Kodanadaram: “When people are desperately waiting for the government to increase beds with oxygen-cum-ventilator facilities and conduct tests on a mass scale, CM KCR has gone ahead with his decision to demolish secretariat buildings. Instead of inspecting and regulating government and private hospitals, the chief secretary and DGP are personally monitoring secretariat demolition,” he said.

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