Telangana in hurry to get rid of Andhra legacy; to build new secretariat

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s firm decision to vacate the secretariat in Hyderabad by the end of August has encouraged his Telangana counterpart, K Chandrasekhar Rao to unveil his grandiose plan to construct the new secretariat.

 

The moment the blocks -- now occupied by the AP government – are surrendered to the Telangana government, the demolition of the Telangana’s existing secretariat would begin. In all probability, the new grand secretariat will come into existence in one-and-a-half years in the place of the ‘lacklustre’ and ‘unaesthetic’ secretariat built by Andhras.

 

Chief minister KCR, who led the Telangana movement for the separate state, has been on a mission to completely reconstruct Telangana after the formation of the new state on June 2, 2014.

 

All the landmarks, reminiscent of the Andhra cultural and political past, are being removed across the state. Names of the institutions, parks, and buildings are being changed. Irrigation projects are being redesigned. The capital Hyderabad is being given a new look.

 

In Hyderabad, many iconic structures are being raised aimed at completely masking the Andhra legacy. “In the next five to ten years, Hyderabad will wear a new look,” commented an official. The construction of the new secretariat will be in tune with the futuristic Hyderabad that Telangana wants to build.

 

Even outside the government, the urge to remove anything that reminds one of the Andhra past is so strong that ten days ago, Hyderabad’s oldest library” Sri Krishnadevaraya Andhra Bhasha Nilayam” lost the word “Andhra” from its name.

 

Though the Andhra word here denotes the Telugu language rather than geography, the management of the library, set up in 1903, even before the idea of Telangana state was born, unanimously decided to rechristen it as “Sri Krishnadevarayha Bhasha Nilayam”.

 

Meanwhile, Chief Minister KCR has approved a design of the new secretariat modelled on his own vision of what the seat of Telangana power should be like.

 

The new state secretariat bears a close resemblance to the North and South Blocks of New Delhi’s Central Secretariat. The T- secretariat also will have two such blocks and which will be connected by central chief minister’s office at the far end, much in the manner that Rashtrapati Bhavan lies at the end of the road that separates the two blocks in Delhi. 

 

The new secretariat, which will be built as per strict Vastu principles, will have a Church, Masjid , Gurudwara along with an Ammavaru (Mysamma) temple on its premises.

 

According to sources in the government, the foundation will be laid on an auspicious day either in August or September, and the construction will be completed on a war footing in 18 months.

 

During the construction, the CM will mostly operate from his farm-house near Erravalli in the Medak district.