HYDERABAD: Paving the way for construction of a new Secretariat building, the state cabinet has resolved to request governor ESL Narasimhan to take over all the buildings that are currently in the possession of Andhra Pradesh government, including Secretariat blocks, State Assembly and Council, and give it to Telangana.
An unanimous resolution to this effect was adopted in the state cabinet meet held here on Friday under the chairmanship of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The cabinet resolved to urge the governor to take possession of the buildings allocated to AP during bifurcation of the state.
As per Section 8 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the governor has to decide allocation of buildings. “The cabinet has resolved to request the governor about the buildings vacated by them after shifting to Velagapudi,” deputy chief minister K Srihari briefed media after the meeting.
It is learnt that the ruling AP government too is willing to hand over the buildings vacated by its employees. But as it still requires some office space for its skeletal staff in Hyderabad, about one lakh sft office space may be allocated to AP government after it hands over its buildings to Telangana, sources said.
At present, A, B, C and D blocks in the Secretariat house the TS government, and H, J, K and L blocks the AP government. These were allotted by the governor as per AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Rao explained the need for building a new Secretariat building conforming to Vastu. It was said that the past rulers and chief ministers did not function well from the existing Secretariat building. Right from the Nizam to N Kiran Kumar Reddy, including Boorgula Ramakrishna Rao, NTR and Chandrababu Naidu, faced rough weather while working from the existing Secretariat buildings. Hence the need for a new building, the cabinet felt.