Telangana high court directs petitioner to approach authorities over World War II memorial demolition claim

Hyderabad: The Telangana high court turned down a petition against the demolition of a World War II memorial near Parade Grounds in Secunderabad, and directed the petitioner to first submit a detailed representation to authorities concerned regarding his grievance.The petitioner, J Rama Krishna, a former Secunderabad Cantonment Board member, had filed the petition as a PIL which was still in the scrutiny stage after objections from the registry. The bench noted that the petitioner must first approach the authorities concerned before moving a PIL.Rama Krishna, citing a TOI report published in Feb 2018, claimed that the memorial was going to be demolished for a proposed elevated corridor from Paradise Junction to Hakimpet on Rajiv Rahadaari. He said about 20.5 metres of Parade Grounds land abutting the road to Tivoli Junction would be acquired and that officials had marked the memorial platform as a temporary benchmark for land acquisition. He stated the memorial, built in 1950 to honour soldiers from the erstwhile Hyderabad princely state who died in World War II, bears inscriptions in English, Telugu, Kannada and Marathi, and submitted photographs as evidence of his claims.The state counsel informed the court the memorial was not being demolished and that there were proposals to relocate it, with discussions underway among HMDA, Cantonment Board and defence authorities. The counsel assured the structure would not be affected until a final decision is taken by all stakeholders.The bench observed that based on the evidence submitted and the response of the state counsel, it was not convinced that demolition would take place, and asked why the petitioner had not registered a grievance with authorities earlier. It directed him to file a representation and place a copy before the court, and adjourned the matter until after the summer vacation.