Round-table wants Governor to halt Secretariat, Assembly building plans of KCR

Hyderabad: An all-party round table conference which deliberated against the construction of new Secretariat and Assembly buildings has decided to meet Governor ESL Narasimhan and urge him to direct the government not to misuse public funds in the name of demolitions and constructions.

The round table conference was organised by G Vivek on behalf of G Venkatswamy Foundation, which was attended by all the opposition party leaders.

The leaders adopted resolutions demanding the government to continue the existing Secretariat and Assembly buildings and not to misuse the funds belonging to people.

The leaders demanded the government to preserve the heritage sites. The leaders also resolved to fight against the government by taking up special action plan, including taking up round table conferences in districts.

TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy urged Vivek to gather public opinion against the government's move. He said that all the buildings in Secretariat were new and it had offices of two state governments and the Assembly building is better than Parliament.

"KCR wants his son to be chief minister and there are talks that Vastu is not supporting this hence he was going for new constructions.

There are doubts that the funds are being misused for this purpose. We are thinking to raise this issue in Parliament," said Uttam Kumar Reddy.

BJP Telangana president K Laxman alleged that the proposed buildings were for getting commissions from the contractors. "We stopped the new secretariat construction in Parade Grounds by pressurising defence authorities at the Centre," claimed Laxman wanting to know whether the government staff demanded new secretariat or MLAs demanded a bigger premises? Malkajgiri MP A Revanth Reddy alleged that the government authorities delisted the buildings, which KCR wanted to demolish from heritage sites in 2017.

The Centre should also intervene when money and natural resources are being wasted and the state government should also give a technical report as to why it was demolishing the buildings.

The existing buildings are enough for housing offices of the two governments, he said. "Nine out of 10 blocks in Secretariat premises are new and only one is old and showing this, they are trying to demolish all the buildings," said Revanth Reddy.

Telangana Jana Samithi president M Kodandaram said the chief minister should also function as per Constitution and should not waste public money in the name of sentiments.

Social activists PL Vishweshwar Rao said that the government was due to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore in the schemes like Aarogyasri, fee reimbursement, Kalyana Lakshmi but it is wasting money on construction of new buildings. He said he would approach Supreme Court against the government.