HYDERABAD: Even as the Telangana High Court decided to have a hearing on the PIL against demolition of the Secretariat building on June 28, the State government chose to go ahead with constructing the new Secretariat, and will hold the groundbreaking ceremony a day earlier, on June 27.
The PIL was filed by Congress leader T Jeevan Reddy in 2016, challenging the government’s move to shift the State Secretariat offices to construct a new Secretariat in the same complex.
Three PILs filed by Congress MLA T Jeevan Reddy, advocate T Rajnikanth Reddy, and the Forum for Good Governance, an NGO represented by its secretary M Padmanabha Reddy, are pending before the high court seeking a stay on demolition of the existing Secretariat buildings.
Senior counsel S Satyam Reddy, appearing for the Congress leader, sought an urgent hearing on the 2016 petition in the wake of the government going ahead with its plan to demolish the buildings. Considering his plea, the bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther, said it would hear the PIL on Friday.
When the PIL was filed, Satyam Reddy had told the court the State government decided to raze the buildings merely on the apprehension that they were not viable as per vastu.
Most of these buildings, constructed after 1986, were very strong, and located on a sprawling area of two lakh square feet. Public money cannot be wasted for the said purpose, he noted.
Disputing Satyam Reddy’s submissions, the then Telangana advocate general K Ramkrishna Reddy told the court the government took a policy decision to construct a new Secretariat for administrative convenience and for security and fire safety norms. He said the existing buildings did not meet fire safety standards.
According to officials, the office space available in various government offices in the city is around 48 lakh sq ft. Of this, around 15-20 lakh sq ft are available, as most AP offices were moved out of the city. The existing office space in the Secretariat is just six lakh sq ft, and government offices can accommodate the Secretariat offices, the source said.
The chief minister will lay the foundation stone for the new Secretariat building between 10 and 11 am on June 27, sources said. However, the place for the ground-breaking ceremony has not been finalised. Normally, the north-east is considered auspicious for the ground-breaking ceremony. “We do not know where the chief minister will lay the foundation stone for the new Secretariat building. The place will be decided by a vastu expert,” an official said.
Sources said the architect for the new Secretariat and Assembly buildings has also not been finalised. The architect’s fee will be around three per cent of the tender value of the work, sources said, adding that the carpet area of the new Secretariat building would be 6-7 lakh sq ft. The State intends to set up the new Secretariat in such a way that officials would have no need to go out, even for lunch.