Opinion: The soul of Telangana

The Secretariat, the seat of power, is one of the embellishments of new identity

By JR Janumpalli

Hyderabad: Telangana’s struggle is like an independence war for the freedom of a nation. It went on for 58 years and about 1,500 people laid down their lives for it. Many new States were created/reorganised in India after independence. But none had to go through such a harrowing experience for such a long time. It needed a memorial commensurate with its sacrifice, struggle and pride. The new Secretariat and the Martyrs Memorial taking shape before it are to fulfil that great aspiration of the Telangana people.

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Like always, the naysayers and the opposition parties lambasted the government on it. They said the old complex, which was good for the 23-district united State, was more than good for the new State which is less than half of it. But the government averred that the present complex was randomly built at different times and lacked infrastructural facilities like adequate parking, fire safety and modern features for a State secretariat.

The idea was mooted in 2016. The government alternatively contemplated finding a suitable place for the new complex elsewhere like at Chest Hospital grounds, Erram Manzil and Gymkhana grounds to avoid demolition of the present structures. But for various reasons, it did not materialise.

Laying Foundation

Because of its centrality in Hyderabad city and as the large part of the complex is old and required demolition, the government went back to the idea of building a brand-new integrated secretariat complex at the same site. A Cabinet decision to that effect was made on June 19, 2019. The foundation stone was laid on June 27. Meanwhile, a slew of public interest litigations was filed on the government decision in the High Court of Hyderabad.

A ministerial sub-committee and high-powered technical committees were constituted to study the state of the old complex to make suitable recommendations. The technical committee, in its report, found that it was not possible to make any changes to the conditions prevailing in the existing buildings.

There were eight blocks located in the congested lanes where fire service vehicles cannot enter and it was not feasible to have fire safety measures there. They observed that the secretariat complex had 10 blocks, with accommodation of 4.45 lakh square feet, of different ages ranging from more than 100 years to 20 years — varying from dilapidated condition to working condition. Except for two blocks, other blocks were reported to be in a rundown condition. The building blocks were disjointed and scattered over an area of 25.5 acres.

The repairs to the old buildings with the aged plumbing, electricity, etc, needed heavy expenditure. There were no adequate conference facilities, parking and a green area. The cost could be as good or even more than the new construction, if it was attempted to make the repairs and carry out renovation to create spaces and other suitable facilities, without demolition.

So, it was felt that it was better to demolish the existing structures and build an integrated building complex with modern facilities. The ministerial sub-committee concurred with it. The government took the decision. The proposed integrated building complex with seven floors was estimated to cost Rs 650 crore.

Various PILs

The main grounds of the PILs were: no need for demolition; not a priority; unilateral decision by the government and huge expenditure. The bench refused to interfere in the State government’s decision saying it does not find any irregularity in the Cabinet decision. It dismissed the PILs filed separately between 2016 and 2019. Yet, the opposition to the new Secretariat continued. The Pradesh Congress Committee president of Telangana went to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the specious grounds of environmental damage. The NGT found no merit in the plaint and dismissed his plea.

Every State has a Secretariat or government building complex depicting the history, culture and ethos of its people. Karnataka has the grandest of them all, built in 1956. Karnataka was not short of buildings either in Bengaluru or Mysuru. Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura have beautiful Secretariat buildings. Even small States in the northeast region have beautiful government buildings depicting their architecture and culture. Ahmedabad and Naya Raipur Secretariats are modern examples of integrated Secretariat buildings.

There was nothing wrong if Telangana wanted to build a Secretariat depicting the architecture, culture and ethos of the State, in place of a drab and haphazard-looking agglomeration of old blocks. It is a new State and certainly needs to have its new identity. The Secretariat, the seat of power of the State government, is one of the embellishments of that identity. Even the Supreme Court concurred with the decision of the High Court.

Apart from the incongruity of the old structure, there was no need for a government to live in an unhappy place where the State’s identity was ridden roughshod over for 58 long years. There was a need to have a complete break from the earlier feudal past and the later neo-colonial majoritarian rule in independent India to breathe a refreshing air of political freedom into the new State for Telangana, which they won so heroically.

Telangana’s Quintessence

The new design depicts the Deccan-Kakatiya architecture and culture expressing Telangana’s quintessence, with all the Indian Green Building Council norms, meeting the stipulations of fire safety, disaster management and other mandatory regulations. It has concrete structures on 2.4 acres of the 27.5-acre campus and the rest is dedicated to greenery, landscaping, footpaths, parking and other accouterments. If such a prestigious structure was coming up in place of an unorganised old structure at an affordable cost, there was no reason to oppose it.

When Andhra Pradesh is said to have spent about Rs 1,100 crore for a temporary Secretariat, what was the issue if Telangana builds a permanent integrated Secretariat complex with about a little more than half of it? Telangana needed a new government building complex, which could as well be like a memorial to all the sacrifices its people made in their long and arduous struggle for political freedom.

It has now materialised, constructed just in two years. The 120-ft height Ambedkar statue and the Martyrs Memorial in front of it are the fine embellishments to the new Telangana Secretariat building. And it is aptly named after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the architect of Article 3 of the Constitution, which helped Telangana fulfil its long cherished dream of a separate State, overruling the cantankerous ‘Andhra and Kendra’ politics.