Secretariat Shifting: T-Congress Threatens Agitation

Accusing Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of trying to waste the public money, Telangana Congress leaders threatened to launch a massive agitation if the Telangana government went ahead with its proposal to shift the state's secretariat to Erragadda.

Addressing separate press conferences, CLP Secretary Dr T Ram Mohan Reddy, MLC D K Aruna and former minister Dr P Shankar Rao advised KCR to drop the plans to shift the secretariat.

Ram Mohan Reddy alleged that the Chief Minister was acting like a monarch, and was not taking the opposition parties into confidence.

He opposed the shifting of the Chest Hospital from Erragadda to Vikarabad in the Ranga Reddy district.

"Being a representative of the Ranga Reddy district, I wish that the people of the district may not suffer, and at the same time I request the government to establish a medical college at Vikarabad as the Congress government had done in the case of the Adilabad and Nizamabad districts, and also make the Vikarabad the district headquarters," he said.

Meanwhile, Aruna alleged that KCR was not fit to stay on as Chief Minister of Telangana. She said that factors like "vaastu" and astrology were personal matters, and in a democratic country, such things should not be imposed upon the common people.

She said that KCR had no right to waste public money to satisfy his personal beliefs on vaastu.

"Instead of wasting hundreds of crores by shifting the secretariat, the state government should construct a health university by merging the Chest Hospital and ESIC with NIMS," she said.

Speaking to media persons separately, Dr Shankar Rao asked KCR to hold wider consultations on the issue of the proposed shifting of the secretariat building and the Chest Hospital.

He advised KCR to hold consultations with the Indian Medical Association, private medical practitioners and NGOs.

He said that TB patients needed fresh air, and that the proposal to shift the TB & Chest Hospital from the city was not a wise decision. (INN)