Telangana has right to demolish buildings for new Secretariat: State govt to HC
The Telangana government on Tuesday argued that it was up to the state to demolish the existing Secretariat buildings and construct new ones in their place. The state appealed to the High Court in Hyderabad to allow it to go ahead with its plans and dubbed the petitions that had challenged the move 'politically motivated'.
Calling it a 'policy decision' that the court could not interfere with, Advocate General BS Prasad said that the state government wished to construct a new building with state-of-the-art facilities.
He also pointed out that an expert technical committee and a cabinet sub-committee had also looked into the issue last year and recommended the same, keeping in mind the growth of the city and the state in the future.
The AG was speaking in front of a bench comprising Chief Justice RS Chauhan and Justice A Abhishek Reddy, which commenced its final hearing over two Public Interest Litigations (PILs) which had been filed by Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) Vice President Professor PL Vishweswar Rao and Congress MP Revanth Reddy.
The petitioners had argued that the present buildings were structurally sound and could be used for many more years after minor modifications. They also asked why the state government wanted to spend an exorbitant amount of money for the construction of new buildings.
The state government argued that there was no evidence placed in front of the court by the petitioners to back their claims, and therefore asked the bench to issue orders to go ahead with the construction of the new Secretariat.
After hearing both sides, the case was posted to March 5 for further hearing.
During an earlier hearing last month, the state government informed the court that it would require Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore to build the new Secretariat and expressed confidence that it could finish construction in a 12-month period.
It also said that it was working on finalising the designs of the new buildings.
It was in 2019 that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao told reporters that the state government wanted to construct a new Secretariat complex by demolishing the existing structures near the Hussain Sagar lake, along with a new Assembly building at a cost of Rs 100 crore, for which it planned to raze Errum Manzil.
The move drew flak from all quarters, especially from opposition parties and heritage activists, who pointed out that Errum Manzil was a heritage structure.
Descendants of Nawab Fakrul Mulk, a noble of erstwhile Hyderabad State, who had constructed Errum Manzil as a family palace around 150 years ago, had also opposed the plans to demolish it for a new Assembly building. This move was also challenged in court.