Telangana secretariat buildings set for sale

HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government, which has decided to shift the State Secretariat to the chest hospital premises at Erragadda in the city, has decided to auction the existing Secretariat buildings.

The new Secretariat building will be constructed within one year. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is very particular about construction of a new building for Secretariat at the chest hospital.

'The government wants to construct the new Secretariat complex in an extent of around 57 acres land at Erragadda. The chest hospital, which is spread over a 62-acre area, will be shifted from Erragadda to Anantagiri, near Vikarabad, in Ranga Reddy district very soon,' highly placed sources in the government told Express on Wednesday.

The new building, approved by the chief minister, will be six-storeyed. Once it is ready, the present Secretariat buildings will be auctioned. Thus, the government will earn a huge amount from the sale proceeds.

After bifurcation, the Telangana government got four blocks _ A, B, C and D _ in the present Secretariat. The government intends to auction these buildings. It is not clear when the government will invite tenders.

Though officials claim that the remaining blocks,which are under occupation by the AP government, will be transferred to Telangana after 10 years, officials in AP government are giving a different interpretation to the AP Reorganisation Act. They say the blocks will remain AP government's property even after shifting of the capital after 10 years.

The AP Reorganisation Act says: 'The assets and liabilities relating to any commercial or industrial undertaking of the existing State of AP, where such undertaking or part thereof is exclusively located in, or its operations are confined to, a local area, shall pass to the State in which that area is included on the appointed day, irrespective of the location of its headquarters.'

The Act further states: 'The headquarters of such undertaking shall be apportioned between the two successor States on the basis of population ratio.'

Quoting this, an official told that the AP government's office blocks _ J, K, L and H _ belong to AP. If TS wants them, they have to pay money, they argue.

'The blocks allotted to Andhra Pradesh will be returned to Telangana. Those blocks will belong to TS after ten years, the common capital period,' a govt official said.