Congress Against Decision To Shift Secretariat

The Telangana Congress Legislature Party outrightly rejected the decision of the Telangana cabinet to shift the state secretariat to Erragadda.

Addressing a joint press conference in the Assembly premises on Saturday, deputy CLP leaders Mohammed Ali Shabbir and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka described the move as an attempt to execute the plans of the land mafia to take control of prime properties in the state capital.

Shabbir Ali accused Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of trying to empty the State's exchequer to implement a hidden agenda. He said that there was a larger conspiracy behind the shifting of the secretariat and other HOD offices.

"The state's exchequer and the secretariat are not KCR's personal jagir. He must take everyone into confidence before implementing the decision," he said.

Shabbir Ali ridiculed KCR's contention that the vaastu of the present secretariat was not proper.

As many as 16 Chief Ministers operated from the same secretariat, and a few of them like Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, Chandrababu Naidu and Y S Rajasekhara Reddy served for long periods. None of them complained about its vaastu, Shabbir Ali pointed out.

Instead of making some required changes in his office, KCR wanted to shift the entire secretariat, Shabbir Ali ridiculed.

When it was pointed out to Shabbir Ali that KCR was also unhappy with the vaastu of his camp office, the former said that instead of changing so many buildings, it would be better to replace the Chief Minister himself.

He also asked KCR to explain what he proposes to do with the present secretariat and the other HOD buildings after shifting to the new premises.

The Congress leader asked whether an administration could be run only from 5-star offices. "Have you, me and other leaders not studied in government schools and came up in our lives and careers?" he asked.

He made it clear that the Congress would never allow the shifting of the secretariat or the Chest Hospital from Erragadda at any cost.

Reacting to the decisions taken by the state cabinet during its meeting held on Friday, Shabbir Ali said that KCR had recalled the promises that he had made to God of sending gold ornaments to the TTD or a "chader" to the Ajmer Dargah almost eight months after coming to power. He said that when KCR could forget the promises that he made to God for fulfillment of his wishes, one can imagine what he would do with the promises that he made to the people.

He asked KCR to state when he planned to fulfill the promises of waiving off of crop loans, KG-to-PG free education, 12% reservation to STs and Muslims etc. He said that there were over 100 promises made by KCR which remained unfulfilled.

The Congress leader welcomed the cabinet's decision to drop the FAST (Financial Assistance for Students of Telangana) and continue with the fee reimbursement scheme. Stating that the Congress party's stand had been vindicated, he said that KCR was slowly adopting all the schemes that were launched by the previous Congress government. He demanded that the Aasra pension scheme too be revived.

Strongly opposing the move to shift the secretariat, Bhatti Vikramarka alleged that KCR was treating Telangana as his personal estate. There was no place for superstitions in a democracy, he said. People had voted for the TRS expecting it to bring jobs, welfare and development. Therefore, KCR had no right to waste public money on superstitions.

He alleged that KCR was being haunted by the memories of how he, along with Chandrababu Naidu, had dethroned NTR in the same secretariat. KCR was probably visualising that he would meet with the same fate if he functioned from the present secretariat, and that was why he wanted to shift everything, he alleged.

The Congress leaders announced that they would launch massive agitations against any wrong decisions taken by the state cabinet. (INN)