Congress leaders meet Guv on Secretariat plans

Accusing the state government of indulging in wasteful expenditure by planning to construct a new secretariat after demolishing the existing one, the Congress on Monday demanded Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan to stop the demotion of the existing Secretariat building.

A delegation of Congress leaders led by TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy met the Governor and submitted a memorandum and urged him to stop the State Government’s plan to raze down the Secretariat building.

Leader of Opposition in Assembly K. Jana Reddy, Leader of Opposition in Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, MLAs T Jeevan Reddy, DK Aruna, Vamshi Chand Reddy, former MLA T. Jayaprakash Reddy and other senior leaders were part of the delegation.

Speaking to media later, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the State Government was planning to demolish the Secretariat citing Vaastu defects, at a time when farmers and students community were suffering, shows the wrong priorities of the state government. He said that when the High Court questioned the state government the reason for demolition of the Secretariat, the state government said that the building lacks fire safety norms. If this was the case then how come the Chief Minister of other governments worked in the past six decades, Uttam Kumar Reddy questioned.

The Congress leader said that the government has no money to clear fee reimbursement dues for the students or to waive off the loan waivers for farmers but has enough money to construct swanky Secretariat for the CM’s comfort. He alleged that the KCR Government was misleading the people and was only making arrangements to make KTR the CM of the state.

He said that the state was facing numerous issues but the state government was totally focused on different things which are irrelevant to the public welfare. He said that due to the non-payments of funds under Arogyasri, the private hospitals have discontinued the health services resulting in severe inconvenience to the people.

Earlier, the Congress leaders met at Gandhi Bhawan and discussed the party’s strategy for the upcoming MLC election under teachers’ quota. The party leaders discussed on supporting PRTU candidate and informed that a final decision would be taken on the same in a couple of days. (INN)