Telangana HC clears hurdles for new secretariat construction

The Telangana high court has dismissed a set of petitions challenging the TRS government’s plans to construct a new secretariat in Hyderabad, razing the present buildings.

Congress and other parties had objected to chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao’s Vastu compliant vision of a grand secretariat, saying it would be an unnecessary expenditure of the public money.

On 27 June last year, Rao had laid the foundation stone for a new state of the art secretariat complex planned to be built with Rs 400 crore.

The present secretariat buildings near Hussain Sagar in the heart of Hyderabad were divided between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana following the bifurcation of the united state in June 2014. The arrangement was in accordance with the AP bifurcation act, which states Hyderabad as a joint capital till 2024.

However, AP’s share of buildings has been lying idle since the then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu shifted his government to Amaravati by the middle of 2017. The Jaganmohan Reddy government which came to power in May 2019 handed over AP’s four blocks to Telangana, a week before the foundation ceremony by Rao.

The high court bench hearing the matter has reportedly noted no arbitrary move on the part of the Telangana cabinet to decide to construct a new secretariat.

Though the handing over of AP’s buildings and the high court order now have cleared the path, it has to be seen as when the Rao government, besieged by the massive spurt in the Covid-19 cases, will initiate the construction works.