The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:
KCR recently inaugurated Telangana’s new secretariat building. A news handle of his son KTR, which goes by KTR_news (and has nearly 6 lakh followers) claimed that no other state built a new secretariat (amongst many other such weird claims in a thread). The new secretariat was constructed not because there was a dire need for this building, but because KCR couldn’t physically step into it because it wasn’t vaastu compliant according to him.
In a press conference in the year 2015, KCR announced that the existing secretariat building has very bad vaastu, and that’s why no CM ever had a good time there. He was referring to the fact that from the year 1956 (when the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed) till the year 2004, no Chief Minister of the state ever completed a full term (Chandrababu did 9 years but didn’t complete full terms). YSR was the first Chief Minister to complete a full term (2004 to 2009) but YSR died in a helicopter crash in 2009, early in his 2nd term. Post his death, we saw 2 more Chief Ministers in the remaining 4 years and then the state was split.
He was alluding to this history while commenting that the existing secretariat building is basically not safe for him to work in (though he actually claimed that this was not good for Telangana)! KCR made some other points about the bad condition of the existing building which we will discuss later in this article. KCR did not even want to work from here, so he started literally working from home, from 2015 itself!
At this point in time (2015), KCR claimed that the construction cost for the new Secretariat will be ~150 crores, and he will demolish the Chest Hospital building in the city. There was widespread outrage by people at this decision to demolish the heritage chest hospital building. This outrage forced KCR to back off from the proposed new building here.
After some time, KCR put the onus on the central government to give the Bison Polo grounds – grounds that belong to the Ministry of Defence. The Prime Minister had given in-principle approval for the same in the year 2017. However, there was again outrage from the citizens; and also, the nitty-gritty between the state and the central government on the actual terms of transfer of this land was taking too long (even though the High Court approved the construction on Bison Polo Grounds). At this point in time (2018), KCR claimed that the construction cost for the new Secretariat will be 250 crores.
In the year 2019, the AP government headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy decides to hand over their share of 58% of the existing Secretariat building to the Telangana government. With 100% ownership of the existing building and the land on which it is there, KCR now decides to demolish the existing secretariat building and build a new one in this space itself.
Now remember this – in 2015, KCR tells us that the estimated construction cost for the new Secretariat is 150 crores. In a press conference in 2018, KCR increased the same to 250 crore rupees. Once the site was finalised, he allotted a whopping 610 crores for this building in the year 2021. A minister, at the inauguration of the building in April 2023 tells us that the final cost may be around 800 crores for this building!
At the press conference in 2015; at a speech in Assembly in 2015; and also, in a lengthy speech in the Assembly in the year 2018, KCR put forth some points against the old Secretariat building. He explained that since the Secretariat complex has disjoint buildings and therefore it is very difficult for officials to walk across buildings for important meetings; the various Heads of Departments are scattered across the city and get stuck in traffic jams while coming to meetings in Secretariat. KCR tells us that even for meetings that he has called, officials had to go back and forth to get relevant documents. Listening to all of this, you would think that it is logical to construct a new building.
However, no logic can explain KCR’s refusal to even come to the Secretariat for 9 full years. He conducted meetings from his house, which is still farther away from the existing Secretariat buildings. In addition to just the Heads of Departments having to go through traffic, now the ministers, secretaries and anyone else who had to meet the CM had to go through the harrowing traffic of Hyderabad to reach his house. For a full 8 years. How could KCR be ok with subjecting so many people through this torment while claiming that earlier only a few were tormented like this?
KCR claimed that fire safety is not good in the old building. Citizens couldn’t but help to allude to this anecdote when a major fire broke out in the new secretariat in the final stages of its construction! KCR claimed that HoDs don’t sit in the secretariat. Guess what – they still don’t get space in the new Secretariat. They will sit in a building that’s a little closer to the secretariat – from when no one knows.
KCR’s lucky number is 6. So, the new Secretariat consists of 6 operational floors (LG, UG and 6 floors); Chief Minister’s office is in the 6th floor. KCR signed 6 files in 6 minutes on Day 1 in the new secretariat. The entire English media was silent on this and some even wrote glowing reports. An official building of the government was built keeping in mind the lucky number and vaastu beliefs of the incumbent Chief Minister, at the exact same location where the older building existed. It took KCR 8 years to build this. And in all these 8 years, he did not even come to the Secretariat because it was not vaastu compliant according to him. The grandeur of the building is apparently a selling point (highest point taller than Taj Mahal apparently – like anyone cares!).
The outrage against the new building seems totally justified given the reasoning and planning that went behind this. There is no need to make this a mark for Telangana pride. It is simply an expenditure to fulfil the beliefs of the incumbent Chief Minister.
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