HYDERABAD: The moving of offices in the Secretariat finally began on Monday, with the General Administration Department packing up its files and furniture. The government has directed all departments to move their offices to BRK Bhavan within a week’s time.
It is expected that most offices will be moved to the new location. However, if a department needs more space, it would be shifted to MLA Quarters in Adarsh Nagar, where there are around 50 rooms which were vacated by Andhra Pradesh MLAs.
Sources said the Chief Minister’s office would be located on the eighth and ninth floors of BRK Bhavan. The chief secretary and chief advisor will work from the same floors. The big offices, such as Irrigation, will be moved to Jala Soudha, the Roads and Buildings office at Errum Manzil and Excise and Commercial Taxes office to the Excise office in Nampally.
The State government issued specific instructions to officials of all the department with regard to IT infrastructure. Sources said optical fibres would be extended to BRK Bhavan to provide internet facilities to various department. Intranet will not be available for some time so officials would have to depend on the internet.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet sub-committee, constituted to present recommendations for the construction of a new integrated Legislature Complex and Secretariat complex, met at Secretariat on Monday. The sub-committee, in turn, constituted a technical committee that is headed by Roads and Buildings Engineer-in-Chief I Ganapathi Reddy as member convenor.
The other members of the committee are P Ravinder Rao, ENC Roads and Buidings, C Muralidhar Rao, Irrigation ENC and M Satyanarayana Reddy, Panchayat Raj ENC. This technical committee would study the facilities available at the existing Secretariat and Legislature buildings. The committee would make necessary recommendations on modifications, improvements, additions or on the requirement of construction of new Secretariat and Legislature Complex.
Cabinet Sub-committee members Vemula Prasanth Reddy, Koppula Eshwar and V Srinivas Goud and principal secretary Roads and Buildings Sunil Sharma were present at the meeting.
More buildings to be taken?
According to sources, the State government plans to take possession of buildings located outside the existing Secretariat, such as buildings used by power utilities. This would allow the new Secretariat to be built on a larger, expanded site.
Chinese experts for demolition
Sources told Express that officials concerned are planning to take the help of experts from China for the demolition of the existing Secretariat
Heritage activists, Fakhrul Mulk’s kin hail HIgh Court stay on demolition; some experts remain skeptic
Hyderabad: Heritage activists and kin of Fakhrul Mulk termed the High Court’s oral stay order for status quo on Errum Manzil as a victory of the State’s history. Begum Fatima Shehnaz, great grand-daughter of Nawab Safdar Jung Musheerud-daula Fakhrul Mulk, said, “I want to express my gratitude to the court. My faith in our judiciary and our democracy is restored.”
Mohammed Safiullah, head of the Deccan Heritage Trust said, “It is a very big win for the heritage fraternity. There is still time for the government to review its decision and spare Errum Manzil from its plans.” However, other experts exercised caution and remained sceptical about the issue. The skepticism comes because a few felt that a “oral direction” was not absolute in its efficacy and also because the State government was yet to file its counter arguments over the matter.