HYDERABAD: Union government’s decision to hand over Bison Polo Grounds to the state government to construct a new complex for Secretariat seems to have put the state BJP leaders in an embarrassing situation.The party leaders, who are opposing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision to construct a new Secretariat at Bison Polo Grounds, are finding it difficult to defend Centre’s ‘favourable’ decision to TRS government. “There is no need to construct a new Secretariat as the present one is housed in a spacious compound,” BJP state unit chief K Laxman said here on Friday.
However, he tried to parried a question when reporters asked him: why the Centre granted permission to construct the new Secretariat, when the party’s state unit was opposing the same. Laxman replied that the Union government might have given permission to the state government to utilise Bison Polo Grounds as the government had requested the Centre for handing over the land citing public purposes. The leader, then, said the state party unit will write a letter to Centre in this regard informing about the actual reason behind TRS government’s decision to take Bison Polo Grounds.
Cantonment Board members, TRS MP welcome the new Secretariat
Hyderabad: Reiterating their stand on welcoming the construction of Secretariat at Bison Polo Grounds, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board elected people representatives and TRS MP Malla Reddy called the move to be a ‘fortune’ one for the masses of the ‘military controlled’ areas. Speaking to the mediapersons, Malla Reddy said, “It is a fortune for SCB that Secretariat is being built here. Considering the fact that majority of the roads are military controlled, which is like being in Pakistan, the move will help us become free.” “Environmentalists need not worry because Haritha Haaram is going on at a brisk speed in the state,” said J Rama Krishna, Vice President, SCB.
PIL filed against govt’s decision to construct new Secretariat, Assembly and Kala Bharati
Hyderabad: A PIL case was filed in the Hyderabad High Court challenging the decision of TS government to take over 33 acres of Bison Polo Grounds and 22 acres of Gymkhana ground for establishment of the new Secretariat, Assembly and Kala Bharati. The Centre in principle has given its approval for the same, it noted.
The petitioners including former DGP MV Bhaskara Rao, veteran cricketer Vivek Jaisimha, sportsperson Turlpati Bharadwaj and squadron leader Anil Bhalla, residents of Secunderabad and Cantonment area, pointed out that the Centre has given its consent, in principle, without taking into consideration the fact that both the grounds are epicentres of sports and cultural activities and that the decision would affect the environment. The petitioners sought the court to restrain the respondents from changing the nature of the Bison Polo and Gymkhana grounds. The PIL is expected to come up for hearing on Tuesday.