Hyderabad: Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday reiterated its claim that the new state secretariat, which is about to be launched by chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Sunday, resembles a mosque and has failed to resemble the ’emotions of 85 percent Hindus’ in the state.
In a graphic tweeted out by @BJP4Telangana Twitter handle, the saffron party called the construction a ‘distortion of history’ as it allegedly doesn’t represent the culture of either the Kakatiyas or the Shatavahana rulers.
It further went on to say that the budget for building the secretariat is double the budget of the newly built Parliament in New Delhi. (Tata Projects Limited won the contract to construct the new Parliament building in September 2020 at the cost of Rs 861.9 crore and this excludes the costs that occurred in the redevelopment of Central Vista. Several budget revisions have also been reported since then causing the overall cost to shoot up. The cost of construction of the Telangana Secretariat is Rs 600 crore).
This is not the first time that the state BJP went after the style of construction of the new Secretariat.
State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay on February 10 issued a threat to demolish domes of the new Secretariat building if his party was voted to power in the next elections. He says the domes of the new Secretariat reflect the culture of Nizam and hence they will be demolished if BJP was voted to power.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will inaugurate the newly-constructed state secretariat on Sunday in a traditional ceremony, state minister Vemula Prashant Reddy said on Saturday.
He said on Sunday morning at 6 am, a three Yagam (ritual) will be held. Chandi and Vastu Homan rituals will be performed till 10 am. Thereafter, CM KCR will reach the secretariat around 1.20 pm.
The Pushkarams (auspicious timing) is from 1.20 to 1.32 pm, spanning 12 minutes. The chief minister will cut the ribbon at the main gate and proceed to his chamber where he file the first file at 1.30 pm.
Vemula Prashant Reddy, minister of Legislative Affairs and Housing of Telangana, said the new Secretariat will expedite the completion of work and coordinate with the ministers, secretaries and officials.
“The older secretariat had blocks which were 70 years old, a few were 40 years old, and some others, built 20 years ago appear old and unorganised. The ministers, secretaries, and other officials used to sit at different blocks, which made the work a lengthy and challenging affair,” Reddy said.
“A file, which could have been cleared in one day, took four days to be processed. So, the CM decided to build a new Secretariat, which is the first of its kind in the country where the minister, secretaries, and other officials will sit together in one block,” he said, adding that it will help expedite the work.
“CM KCR himself finalised the plan and asked the architect to incorpotate Haindava Sanskriti and Persian architecture, as well as Hyderabad Nizam architecture into the design. A total of 15 designs were presented by the architect, of which the CM selected this,” he said.
