Congress leader slams demolition of old secretariat by Telangana government, says it has long history

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], July 7 (ANI): Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy on Tuesday slammed the Telangana government over its move to demolish the old secretariat building, claiming that Vaastu Consultant to Chief Minister K Chandrasekar Rao has said that his son cannot succeed him to the chief minister's post in the present secretariat building.
Marri Shashidhar Reddy, son of former chief minister unified Andhra Pradesh Marri Channa Reddy, said it is very unfortunate that the Telangana government is going ahead with the demolition of the old secretariat which has a long history.
"It is very unfortunate that the Telangana government is going ahead with the demolition of the old secretariat which has a long history. There have been several chief ministers who were great leaders of this country who carried out their responsibilities successfully," he said.
Reddy said the building was sufficient for the entire Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is about one-thirds of it.
"In the name of Vaastu, this is being carried out and now we found a tweet saying that the Vaastu consultant of the chief minister said that 'his son cannot succeed him in this present secretariat'. So in order to make his son chief minister, KCR is not hesitating to spend Rs 500 crores to build a new secretariat. Somebody should tell me is this the way to become a chief minister of the state," Reddy said.
He said the ruling party has no right to waste public money in this manner.
"The chief minister is also interested to rewrite history and erase all the past achievements. There is a 188-year-old building, the Saifabad palace a part of the secretariat. If you are really concerned about the culture and heritage of Telangana that would have been a valuable part of Telangana's heritage and culture," he said.
"This Chief Minister is obsessed with erasing the past things and tries to give the impression that he is one who has done everything for Telangana without having a memory of past achievements. We strongly oppose this move," he added.
The ruling TRS Government had decided to construct a new secretariat complex after demolishing the existing secretariat. The new secretariat will be constructed at a cost of Rs 400 crore. The Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had laid the foundation stone for construction of a new secretariat in June 2019.
After High Court gave clearance for construction of new secretariat on Monday, Telangana authorities started demolishing all the blocks in the old secretariat from late night yesterday. (ANI)