KCR Kicks Off Works For New Secretariat, Assembly

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today laid the foundation stone for the new Secretariat building complex being built with "vaastu" norms in the existing premises at D Block, at a cost of Rs 400 crore.

The new Secretariat will come up in an area of about 6.5 lakh sq ft - all the 10 existing structures will be demolished first. The structure will provide space all to the existing departments, have a District Collectors' conference hall, meeting halls for mandal level officials and more amenities. Officials have been directed to complete the construction in nine months.

The CM also laid the foundation stone for the new Assembly building complex to come up at Errum Manzil that will cost Rs 100 crore.

The Chief Minister performed pujas and broke open pumpkins and coconuts to mark the occasions.

TRS working president K T Rama Rao, former minister T Harish Rao, Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao, Home Minister Mahmood Ali, ministers Prashant Reddy, Srinivas Goud, Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Indrakaran Reddy, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, Chief Secretary S K Joshi and a large number of officials were present on the occasions.

When BJP leaders tried to protest the Chief Minister's plan to build a new Secretariat and a new Assembly, the police intervened and took them into custody.

KCR last visited the existing Secretariat in July 2017, and kept himself confined to Pragathi Bhavan for all official work ever since. The CM reportedly has strong belief in astrology and vaasthu, and believes that working in the existing Secretariat would not be good for him. That is apparently the reason that he is ignoring strong Opposition and public criticism that he is wasting public money to build a new structure.

The Chief Minister will take a call on which of the three designs for the new structure - two have been provided by the Chennai-based Aaskar Ponni, and the other was given by Mumbai-based Hafeez - will be used.

Officials currently working from the existing Secretariat will shift to working from the nearby BRKR building and other places, during the construction period.