Hyderabad: Shabbir livid at demolition of places of worship in Secretariat

Hyderabad: The Congress party on Thursday accused Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of hurting the religious sentiments of all the communities by demolishing their places of worship within the Secretariat Complex.

While strongly condemning the act, former minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in Legislative council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that the TRS government has also violated the provisions of The Places of Worship Act.

"CM KCR has no respect for the law or Constitution and he openly violated the central laws on multiple occasions. Similarly, he carried out the demolition of Secretariat in haste only to avoid another stay by the Supreme Court," he said.

Shabbir Ali said people of Telangana would never forgive CM KCR and other TRS leaders for hurting their religious sentiments. He reminded that the GHMC authorities have demolished Ek Khana Masjid, a more than 200-year-old mosque in Amberpet which was also a registered Wakf property, in the name of road expansion.

Several other places of worship have been demolished under the TRS regime during the last six years. "Except for KCR's superstitious beliefs no other religion or places of worship are being given due importance under TRS rule," he said.

The Congress leader alleged that CM KCR was trying to set a new precedent of demolishing religious structures in the name of expansion or renovation. "If TRS Govt is allowed to demolish the places of worship to facilitate the construction of a new Secretariat, then it would become a trend for all governments in the future to demolish any temple, mosque, church or other religious structures without any hindrance," he said In a letter addressed to the CM, he stated that it was quite disheartening and disappointing that the State Government is going ahead with the construction of new buildings for the Secretariat and Assembly despite the move being opposed by all opposition parties and entire civil society.