Hyderabad: As the iron barricades and the fences of Pragathi Bhavan (Building of progress) were pulled down by authorities of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, (GHMC) on December 7, Thursday it is important to understand the political significance of the ‘Vastu-compliant’ powerhouse positioned at the core of the state’s capital city.
The orders to bring the fences down and remove the barricades were delivered by the newly elected Congress dispensation on the day when its initial cabinet of ministers took the sacred oath.
The new official residence cum office of Telangana’s chief minister since the time of its construction in 2016, continues to stay relevant in the political discourse as it represented ‘governance and progress’ for the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and ‘oppression and corruption’ for the opposition.
The outgoing state chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) was consistently targetted over the years for its ‘fort-like’ presence and a lack of access to commoners.
Pragathi Bhavan a miniature version of KCR’s vision
A 2016 debate in the state Assembly over the allotment of double-bedroom houses between the Congress and the BRS portrays the model of governance and progress that KCR held for Telangana.
Congress MLA Komatireddy Venkatreddy remarked that while the chief minister’s residence with “150 bedrooms” was built within a record time of 9 months between March-November 2016, the TRS (now BRS) led state government has failed to deliver enough houses for the needy.
KCR fired back heavily at the Congress MLA for his remark about the newly built chief minister’s residence and termed the property as “the pride of Telangana.”
He stated that such statements portray the Congress party’s ‘negative mindset’.
“How could we build 150 bedrooms in the chief minister’s residence? Can they show it? Is this how they speak? It shows the spite they hold in their thoughts,” KCR had remarked.
In that address, KCR had said that the construction was intended to “improve the profile of Telangana”.
“The Nizam has given us lakhs of acres in land. But due to a bankruptcy in ideas, the chief minister didn’t have a (proper) residence. Today, we have built a place that has a parking area that can hold up to 200-300 cars, and a meeting hall for the chief minister to hold conferences with the bureaucracy and the public for Rs 36-37 cr. Numerous chief ministers post-KCR will stay there. It is the Telangana chief minister’s official residence, it’s not KCR’s house…It is not KCR’s property but is owned by the people of Telangana. It will improve the profile of the state even in the eyes of foreign delegates. It is the pride of Telangana…” he had said.
KCR had discharged his duties from the old Secretariat for only two years before demolishing it. A ‘Vastu-compliant’ new structure opened in its place in April 2023.
He mostly functioned from the Pragathi Bhavan where bureaucrats brought him files for authorisation.
His refusal to visit the secretariat was highly criticised by the opposition.
“KCR stopped going to the secretariat after a sorcerer warned him about an ill omen in the building. Going by the surge in support for BJP, there is no need for him to go to secretariat again, the BJP chief minister will soon preside over meetings there,” Union home minister Amit Shah said in a public meeting held in July 2022.
Before Pragathi Bhavan
Before its construction, chief ministers since 2004 (both erstwhile AP and Telangana) lived in the Telangana State Guest House (popular as the CM camp office) which existed in the same location.
KCR’s Vaastu experts had reportedly advised him against utilising the existing camp office built in 2004 by then chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy for Rs 8.10 cr.
The BRS supremo considered the building ‘inauspicious’ as Rajasekhara Reddy had reportedly moved in without performing rituals and he had died in a tragic helicopter crash a few months after returning to power in 2009.
His successor K Rosaiah also resigned citing health reasons while N Kiran Kumar Reddy faced a turbulent time as the last chief minister of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
KCR used only the residential part of the complex both as a residence and office but never used the camp office.
Gruhapravesham
The Gruhapravesham (housewarming) was performed on 23 November 2016 at 5.22 am by KCR and his wife Shobha Rao with traditional rituals performed by his spiritual guru, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, formally known as Sri Tridandi Srimannarayana Ramanuja Chinna Jeeyar Swami.
As part of the rituals, the couple performed ‘Daiva Pravesham’, Yati Pravesham’, Go Pravesham, and Sudarshana Yagam ceremonies.
Every aspect of the KCR’s brainchild was determined by Vaastu or feng shui experts as he was a strong believer.
It was reported back in the day that the new complex came up especially because the existing government headquarters and his home were not Vaastu compliant.
KCR makes ‘godman’ sit in CM’s chair
Along with debates on KCR’s belief in such superstitions, visuals of Chinna Jeeyar Swamy sitting in the official chair for the chief minister stirred a major controversy.
In a video that went viral on social media, KCR can be seen insisting that the ‘godman’ take the chief minister’s official chair in his new office with cameras recording the whole moment.
Amidst Vedic chants by Brahmin priests, with his wife standing next to him, KCR sat in the new white chair set for the chief minister. He bowed down to Chinna Jeeyar who blessed him by showering sacred rice on his head.
The ceremony was widely commented upon for its religiosity and questions were raised on the expenditure costs levied on the state exchequer for fulfilling the personal belief systems of elected representatives.
Chinna Jeeyar received the Padma Bhushan award from President Droupadi Murmu in 2023 under the ‘Others-Spiritualism’ category.
(All nominations received for Padma Awards are placed before the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year. The recommendations of the committee are submitted to the Prime Minister and the President of India for approval.)
Gates of Pragathi Bhavan witnessed several protests
Located in Punjagutta, the gates of Pragathi Bhavan witnessed several demonstrations led by opposition parties, activists, workers’ unions, and student groups over the years.
Unemployment, job recruitment, employee transfers, fund disbursement issues, reservations, and controversies around examinations were the issues that dominated the protests held here.
In 2021, a high-rise grill was installed by the authorities to prevent protestors from storming the building, due to which, the road in front of it got narrower by two to three feet (which already was narrow after an entryway was installed covering half of the public road in Punjagutta).
It was set up following suicide attempts and a protest held by then Congress MP A Revanth Reddy to barge into the building with his cadre.
Opposition parties strongly criticised the move for ‘curtailing the people’s democratic right to protest’ and also the ‘disruption of traffic’ that would arise due to the road narrowing further.
To prevent protest demonstrations at the chief minister’s residence, opposition leaders belonging to the Congress, BJP, and the YSRTP were also subjected to house detentions.
Pragathi Bhavan experience ‘claustrophobic’: RS Praveen Kumar
Speaking to ABN Andhra Jyothi in 2021, Bahujan Samaj Party’s Telangana unit chief R S Praveen Kumar described the experience around the CM’s residence as ‘claustrophobic‘.
“Normal people cannot go there. It always looks like a desert. Along with this, the building occupies half the road in Punjagutta. How can anybody raise an iron grill on a road used by the public?” the former IPS officer had asked.
Praveen remarked that the high walls of the structure and the grills raised on the road divider made it feel ‘like a fort.’
“Anybody who goes there feels scared. It is as if they want to create a sense of fear in people. How unjust is this? Who paid for its construction? For whose purpose was it built….how many live inside and how many crores of people live outside?” he asked.
No self respect inside: Eatala Rajender
KCR’s former cabinet colleague Eatala Rajender, now with the BJP, speaking to ABN Andhra Jyothi in 2021, said that he suggested a name change from ‘Pragathi Bhavan’ to ‘Banisala Nilayam‘(a building full of slaves) in 2016.
He remarked that there was no self-respect in its premises.
“In early 2016, before the new building was constructed, MPs and MLAs from Karimnagar district faced a problem. We knew that he (KCR) had immense love for Karimnagar and the same for me as well, so we wanted to go meet him and get the issue resolved. So, we went there (pre-Pragathi Bhavan camp office) in two cars and the police at the gates stopped us. The media cameras noticed us being stopped and it bothered us. We told the cops that we would drive the cars into the premises, do a round, and get out (Eatala said that the police informed them that ‘sir’ would not meet them since there was no appointment.) But we weren’t even allowed to do that,” he claimed.
Rajender further alleged that Gangula Kamalakar, one more former colleague of his in the KCR cabinet in 2016, remarked “What sense of arrogance!”
“If Eatala Rajender’s situation is in such dire straits, what about us regular ministers? Karimnagar has to go through this, what about other districts……,” Kamalakar said, according to Eatala.
He said that post this experience, he was not allowed into the premises with others even with an appointment. “This is the crux of the issue (where the rift started between him and KCR),” he remarked.
NSUI protest in 2020
Protesting against the Telangana government’s plan to hold annual exams for graduate and post-graduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic, National Students Union of India (NSUI) activists staged a flash protest in front of Pragathi Bhavan on August 12, 2020.
The activists had donned PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) kits while holding the demonstration.
Unprepared for the flash protest, the security personnel at the gates of Pragathi Bhavan tried to detain and parcel them into a police vehicle. However, some students ran along the security fencing even as the police chased them.
The activists demanded that the state government promote all the final semester students instead of holding examinations amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis in the state.
31 NSUI activists were booked in a criminal case by the Punjagutta police for this act.
Post detaining them, the local police brought the activists to the police station and were booked under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), and 143 (unlawful assembly) of IPC besides the Epidemic Diseases Act and other relevant acts.
Police, however, denied the occurrence of a few of these students successfully breaching the security near the CM’s residence. Speaking to TOI, senior officials said that their force was already at Pragathi Bhavan since the CM was holding a meeting with his ministers.
“The moment they got down from the DCM vehicle in which they came, the police caught them and took them into custody. All 31 were arrested,” ACP (Punjagutta) Thirupathanna said, according to the report.
Protest is people’s democratic right: Kodandaram
Condemning cases against NSUI student activists, political activist Professor Kodandaram remarked that it is the democratic right of people to express dissent and called the state government’s call to file cases against them ‘unjust’.
On the question of whether protests could be held in front of the chief minister’s residence, he said that the Pragathi Bhavan is a public place and as it functioned like a ‘mini secretariat’, it became even more so.
“Works that were conducted at Samatha block are shifted there (Pragathi Bhavan). We also have a special situation in Telangana. All work is being done under the purview and based on orders from the chief minister and the cabinet of ministers has no special importance. Other than day-to-day work, they are not empowered to take calls on matters of importance. There is no chance (for people) to get their demands fulfilled other than going near the CM’s office/residence. If the chief minister had instated visiting hours daily, people would have adhered to it and would have expressed their issues,” he said in an interview with Tolivelugu TV.
“The students went to court asking that exams must be postponed. While the case is subjudice, the state government put out a schedule for the exams. The students had to go to Pragathi Bhavan as the schedule was out despite a stay order from the court against such an action. Where will they go but to the chief minister’s office for justice? Cases were filed for their mere act of holding the gates,” Kondandaram added.
No easy access
Leaders of the opposition and civil society groups have several times criticised the ‘arbitrary’ nature of the chief minister’s residence in providing access to people.
Congress leader (later joined the BJP) Alleti Maheshwar Reddy had demanded that the list of visitors to the Pragathi Bhavan be made public.
“Pragathi Bhavan provides unrestricted access to contractors, but is a no-entry zone for the common folk,” he had alleged, adding that even the ruling BRS MLAs and ministers are following in the footsteps of their leader and are avoiding meeting the public.
Gaddar’s episode
The episode involving late revolutionary balladeer and activist Gummadi Vittal Rao, popularly known as Gaddar stirred the debate once again on the ‘arbitrary’ nature of access to the chief minister at Pragathi Bhavan.
Gaddar was made to wait for hours at the gates of Pragathi Bhavan in early 2023 as he wanted to meet the chief minister over cases against him.
“We made several requests to the chief minister’s office to facilitate a meeting with him (KCR) regarding cases against me. I even went to the gates a couple of times but didn’t let me in,” Gaddar had said, further stating that KCR’s behaviour was ‘feudal’ in nature.
“I even asked them (security) to pass a letter to him. But they didn’t agree,” he had said.
When KCR’s son, minister K T Rama Rao was questioned on the incident, he remarked that there was a process in place to meet the chief minister and “one cannot gate crash.”
Expenditure on Pragathi Bhavan
The entire complex was constructed by Mumbai-based construction company, Shapoorji Pallonji, and according to a Right to Information (RTI) response from the state government in 2022, the total expenditure on the building touched Rs 50 cr.
The RTI query was filed by Hyderabad-based activist Robin Zaccheus to which the public relations officer of the roads and buildings department, Telangana in reply said that the total expenditure on Pragathi Bhavan, since its construction, added up to a total of Rs 49,84,14,145 by 2022.
It was built after demolishing 10 IAS officers’ quarters and 24 peon quarters at the officers’ colony. The complex, built over nine acres of land, cost Rs 45,91,00,000 during the financial year 2016-2017.
It racked up another four crore rupees in expenditure in the following four years. Some of the expenses involve services of plumbers and carpenters at the camp office at Rs 14 lakhs, the construction of a patrolling path on the east side of the building at Rs 26 lakhs, and the building of a modular kitchen at the chief minister’s residence at the cost of Rs 26 lakhs.
It has bulletproof bathrooms, an auditorium that seats 250 people, and a meeting hall that accommodates up to 500 people. The construction work was reportedly expedited with 200 workers, working day and night at the site.
From Pragathi Bhavan to Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan
The newly elected Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy in tune with his promise to open the doors of the chief minister’s office/residence to the public sent in bulldozers to bring down its fencing and iron grills on December 7, 2023.
He also renamed the edifice as ‘Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan’, after the anti-caste social reformer.
Addressing a massive crowd gathered to see Revanth take the oath as the chief minister, Revanth Reddy on Thursday said the barricades and iron fence were being dismantled even as the swearing-in ceremony was in progress.
“The CM’s camp office-cum-official residence would be accessible to all, from now on..” he had said.
On Friday, December 8, he held a ‘Praja Darbar’ at his camp office-cum-official residence here and heard the grievances of common people and promised to address them at the earliest.
People queued up in large numbers at the newly renamed Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan for the Praja Darbar’.
The chief minister gave priority to receiving representations from persons with disabilities and enquired about their problems, an official release said.
“CM Revanth enquired thoroughly about the problems being faced by people who came to ‘Praja Darbar’ in large numbers and their pleas on various issues for government help. The chief minister said immediate measures will be taken to address the people’s grievances,” it said.
State ministers Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy and Danasari Anasuya (popularly known as Seethakka) were also present at the ‘Praja Darbar’.
“The CM later left for the Secretariat to attend an urgent meeting and Minister Seethakka received the grievances from everyone,” it said.
The state government made elaborate arrangements to hold the ‘Praja Darbar’.
CMO Special Chief Secretary Seshadri, DGP Ravi Gupta, and other officials coordinated the conduct of the ‘Praja Darbar’.
The release said 15 desks have been opened for registration of grievances. A special mechanism has been developed to register the petitions online and to issue a unique Grievance Number (ID generated) on each petition.
A printed acknowledgment would be given to the applicant, which would also be sent to them via SMS.
The release further said that 320 seats were arranged for people to sit inside and attend the ‘Praja Darbar’ and that queue lines were also set up outside.
A roof has been set up over the queue lines so that those in the queues are not exposed to heat. Safe drinking water and other facilities have been provided at the entrance and in the Praja Darbar hall, it said.
The first day of CM’s Praja Darbar received extremely good response as people came from not only Hyderabad but also from all other districts of the state, the release added.
Media reports said that many people were left disappointed as the chief minister couldn’t meet them.
