New secretariat plan on hold

Hyderabad: Telangana state government has reportedly shelved the proposal to construct a state-of-the-art new secretariat building on the sprawling 60 acres of land on Bison Polo grounds. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s fresh onslaught on the BJP-led Union government coupled with the ongoing strong opposition from local people against the huge construction in the residential area forced the government to withdraw the proposal of new state administration office.

The state government has been pursuing the issue of taking over land with Union Defence Ministry for the last one year. Though a little progress was made in the transfer of ownership of land, located at the Parade Grounds, to the state, officials said that the official agency to execute the project --- the state Roads & Buildings department -- put the finalisation of designs for the new Secretariat on hold.

A top official of the state government told The Hans India, “KCR’s alleged use of unparliamentarily word (Modi Gaadiki) against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a programme and the strong counter by the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and BJP leaders against the KCR’s diatribe triggered political slugfest between state and the Union government.” In the present circumstances, the possibility of the handing over of defence land to the state government is ruled out.

Some progress had taken place with regard to the de-notifying the land when Goa CM Manohar Parikkar was the Defence Minister. In fact, the state government submitted a detailed report, including land compensation to the ministry. The Centre in principle agreed to accept the state’s request. After Nirmala took over the reins, the relations between KCR and Modi government strained.

The official communication between the Defence ministry and state government on land issue was also cut off ever since KCR made objectionable comments on PM last week, officials said and pointed that “the proposal to construct new secretariat will not take place unless the Centre hands over the land to the state. It will happen only when the state maintained cordial relations with the Centre. 

The state government has come to a conclusion that the Union government will not give its nod at least till the end of its term till May 2019. Officials said that the proposal to construct the new secretariat will be revived only after 2019 elections depending on the poll results. As the government also withdrew its earlier plan to construct new secretariat in the existing premises, the R&B officials said that shifting of the secretariat will be completely put in cold storage till the next assembly elections.