Junked vehicles pose security threat at Secretariats

​Hyderabad: Condemned official vehicles owned by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments are rusting in Telangana and AP State Secretariats posing security threat in the high-security zone in the city. More than 70 four-wheeler vehicles, most of them cars and a few vans, have turned into heaps of metal in the parking places for almost two years.

The condemned vehicles owned by AP government are gathering dust at the old employees’ canteen and behind J,L Block allotted to AP government after the bifurcation of the state. The Telangana vehicles are lying at the Helipad and in front D block premises.

As per the Motor Vehicle Act, the government declares the cars used by the officials as condemned vehicles if they are more than 15 years of age or run more than one lakh km. The government would have to put the vehicles on auction soon after they were declared condemned.

Officials said that the Telangana GAD (General Administration Department, Protocol) shot off several letters to State Road Transport Authority (RTA) to certify the vehicles for auction. But the entreaties fell on deaf ears.     

The security wing of the Secretariat has already brought this to the notice of the Telangana GAD officials the security threat to the seat of state administration if the abandoned vehicles are not removed.

The AP government also did not respond to the plea for the removal of the vehicles from the parking places. After the Andhra Secretariat shifted to Amaravati, the AP government forgot its responsibility of shifting the condemned vehicles from the Secretariat. As a result, the engines of the condemned vehicles have rusted and turned into scrap.

Officials said that the security personnel in the Secretariat were forced to guard the condemned vehicles regularly by conducting thorough checks inside the vehicles suspecting anti-social elements may exploit the vehicles to create security problem.