Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday expressed regret over the damage caused to places of worship at the secretariat premises during the demolition of old buildings and assured that a new temple and mosque would be built on a spacious area.Rao said he came to know that the religious places suffered some damage after debris fell on them when multi-storied buildings abutting them were being brought down.“I feel sorry about the incident. It should not have happened. The government’s intention is to build a new complex by demolishing the old buildings without causing any damage to the temple or the mosque,” an official release quoted him as saying.The chief minister said a new temple and mosque would be built over a more spacious area even if it meant spending crores of rupees.He said he would soon hold a meeting with the management of the temple and mosque, and take their views.He promised that the places of worship would also be built along with the new secretariat complex.“Telangana state is a secular state. We will continue the secular spirit come what may. This incident happened unexpectedly. Everyone should understand this properly without prejudice,” the chief minister said.Rao’s statement comes a day after senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that the places of worship in the secretariat complex were demolished along with the old buildings that are being razed.The K. Chandrashekhar Rao-led government began razing the secretariat building complex on July 7, days after the High Court’s June 29 decision to dismiss a bunch of public interest litigations (PIL) challenging the state’s decision to construct a new complex by demolishing the existing one.Also read: Demolition Work of Historic Secretariat Buildings in Telangana BeginsTelangana high court stays demolition till July 13On July 10, three days after the state government began demolishing secretariat buildings to construct a new one at the same site, the Telangana High Court issued an interim stay on knocking them down till Monday.A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy, was hearing a petition filed by professor P.L. Vishweshwar Rao and Dr Cheruku Sudhakar.The petitioners alleged that demolishing the 10-block secretariat complex of approximately 10 lakh square feet was being done without following the due procedure of law.The government’s actions are against the Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules, 2016, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and the Environment Protection Act, 1986, among other laws, the petitioners alleged.The court ordered the state government to file its counter with all necessary details that were pointed out by the petitioner.The petitioners alleged that the demolition of the existing is an ‘arbitrary action’ of the state government in a pandemic situation, and deprives five lakh people, of the surrounding areas, from getting clean air.After the Court cleared the decks for the construction of the new secretariat, the demolition of the old secretariat building complex began and the foundation stone for the new one was laid on June 27, 2019.The state government had earlier indicated that the new secretariat, to come up in about seven lakh square feet, would cost around Rs 400 crore and it had decided to equip the new one with state-of-the-art connectivity and other features.(With PTI inputs)
