Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday completed a year by not stepping into his office at the Secretariat, the highest seat of power in the state.
After Rao constructed a new palatial Pragathi Bhavan in Begumpet that now serves as residence-cum-camp office of the Mr Rao, he has been avoiding the Secretariat and running the administration from his home.
He moved to Pragathi Bhavan in October 2016 and since then all Cabinet and review meetings are held there itself.
The CM also holds the record of conducting Cabinet meetings once or twice in six months unlike other CMs whose Cabinet meets are held at least once or twice in a month.
It has been nearly three and a half months since the last Cabinet meeting was held in October 2017. Rao has been avoiding the Secretariat ever since he assumed office in June 2014.
During his press conference at the Secretariat in January 2015, he announced that Secretariat suffers ‘dangerous vastu defect’ and he wants to build a new Secretariat by demolishing the existing blocks.
After a hue and cry was raised over this and some people approached courts, he backtracked from demolition of the Secretariat.
KCR had scouted for alternate locations near Erragadda Mental Hospital and later in Secunderabad. Finally, he zeroed in on Bison Polo Ground, Secunderabad and sought to get Defence land. But the Centre is yet to hand over the land.
Though the CM is about to complete four years in office in another four months, he visited the Secretariat not more than 40 times, that too in the initial two years.
