Hyderabad: It is not for the first time that a government had sought the Parade Ground and it extension lands. According to eminent environmentalist Prof K. Purushotham Reddy, a similar attempt was made in the undivided state of Andhra Pradesh. The then Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu wanted to build a stadium there, but he had to shelve his plans as a result of protests from the civil society. Mr Reddy says that Mr Naidu wanted to use his relationship with the NDA Government at the Centre to his advantage, but the public and the defence officials were not in his favour.
A case was filed at the High Court, after which the government withdrew its proposal. The retired professor believes that it is unfair for the army to be deprived of parade and capacity-building facilities. G. Shanker Narayan, an architect who has been living in Secunderabad for the past two and a half decades, has called upon the government to involve the public and experts, to conduct a study on the project proposal, instead of taking an emotional decision.
He says that it is illogical for the Secretariat to be moved from one end of the Tank Bund to the other, across a distance of 4 or 5 kilometres. Anuradha Reddy, a concerned citizen of Hyderabad, feels that it is a tragedy to lose open spaces, which are already a rarity in the state capital. “Generations of citizens have walked and played in the maidans of Secunderabad”, she says. She asks how the army will conduct training activities in the absence of a ground.
