Congress Condemns Secretariat Demolition, Calls It 'Black Day'

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy strongly condemned the demolition of the Secretariat complex, and described the move as "very sad" and highly disappointing in the present circumstances.

Addressing a press conference along with other senior leaders at his residence in Banjara Hills on Tuesday, Reddy said that this day would be remembered as a Black Day in the history of Telangana, as a "Tughlaq administration" had demolished the Secretariat only to satisfy the superstitious beliefs of an individual (Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao).

He said that the move amounted to playing with the lives of over 4 crore people of Telangana.

He said that the courts intervened whenever the government failed to act as per the law. However, in the case of the Secretariat's demolition, the people faced disappointment even from the judiciary.

Reddy said that the verdict of the High Court permitting the construction of a new Secretariat building had been challenged in the Supreme Court, and the matter was to be heard on Wednesday. However, the old structure was demolished in a midnight operation to render the hearing infructuous.

He questioned the need for a new Secretariat at a time when the state government was unable to even pay full salaries to its staff and pensions to retired persons, waive off the promised crop loans, provide unemployment allowance to the youth or give fee reimbursement to the students.

Stating that many blocks in the old Secretariat were newly constructed and in extremely good condition, he alleged that the new structure was being constructed just to benefit the contractors with a Rs 1,000 crore deal.

He also said that the demand by Congress to use the old Secretariat as a temporary Covid-19 hospital or quarantine centre was also not considered in a marked example of insensitivity.

The TPCC chief also slammed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, saying that the latter was not even qualified for the top post as he belonged to the Andhra Pradesh cadre. He said that Kumar had been made the Chief Secretary by sidelining 20 other senior officials, and showing his gratitude to the Chief Minister, was not acting like the head of the bureaucracy but as per the whims and fancies of the Chief Minister. He said that the Chief Secretary demonstrated his disregard for the law by even violating the constitution by not attending a meeting convened by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan at the Secretariat.

Reddy also blamed KCR's negligence, ignorance and incompetence for the deteriorating Covid-19 situation in Telangana, especially Hyderabad. He said there was a huge difference between the Covid-19 figures being released by the health department and the actual situation prevailing in the state, and that the real numbers were much higher than those being claimed officially. Stating that Telangana was about to witness a "corona explosion", he alleged that KCR had failed and harmed the people of Telangana by under-testing and under-reporting in violation of the national guidelines.

And despite the fact that the Coronavirus cases had now officially crossed 25,000 mark and the death toll the 300 mark, the Chief Minister was completely missing from the scene, he said.

It was stunning that the testing rate in Telangana continued to be low despite the situation turning more alarming with each passing day, he added. He praised Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy for conducting over 10 lakh Covid-19 tests in his state, and said that that put the 1.22 lakh tests conducted in Telangana in excellent context. He asked why it was difficult for the state government to conduct tests on a massive scale so that all the Covid-19 patients could be traced and treated.

MLC T Jeevan Reddy, former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, and MLAs D Sridhar Babu and Jagga Reddy also made similar observations.