Hyderabad: In his second term, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao hopes to fulfil the unfulfilled promises of his first term.
After becoming the first Chief Minister of Telangana state on June 2, 2014, he had made several promises such as the construction of a new secretariat building at Bison Polo Ground, and of the Telangana Kala Bharathi at NTR Stadium, Smruthi Vanam for Telangana Martyrs on the banks of the Hussain Sagar, installing a 125-ft-tall Ambedkar statue near the Secretariat, and Banjara Bhavan at Jubilee Hills. Some of these projects have been mired in court cases.
The Central government in-principle approved allotment of defence land of Bison Polo Ground in Secunderabad for construction of a new secretariat building.
But the fate of this depends on the new government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections. If the NDA retains power, or a new government is formed with the support of the TRS, then the Telangana state government will not have a problem in getting the defence land. But if the UPA comes to power, or any new government is formed with the support of the Congress, then the TS government will face a problem in getting the land as the Telangana unit of the Congress is opposed to the construction of the new secretariat building, considering it an unnecessary expense.
The construction of a huge Telangana Martyr’s Memorial in the proposed Telangana Martyrs Memorial Park on the banks of the Hussainsagar has not fructified though Mr Rao was expected to lay the foundation stone on the occasion of the second anniversary of the formation of the new state of Telangana. The Buddha Purnima building and offices of the tourism and energy departments have to be shifted to establish the memorial park, which was also to be a cultural centre.
The Chief Minister’s plan to install a 125-ft statue of B R Ambedkar adjacent to NTR Ghat near the Secretariat, ran into controversy when Telangana Telugu Desam leaders raised objections because NTR Ghat would have to be removed. The Telangana government then made it clear that the NTR Ghat will not be removed and the Ambedkar statue will be installed in some other place. This may actually happen during this term of the TRS government.
A Telangana Kala Bharathi building was to come up on 14 acres of land opposite Indira Park where the NTR Stadium stands. Mr Rao approved the design of the building by Mumbai based architect Hafeez Contractor which envisaged auditoriums with a seating capacity of 3000, 1500, 1000 and 500, a preview theatre, art museum, painting and sculpture galleries, seminar rooms, restaurants, and food courts. Water bodies and fountains would surround it. The state government said that the Telangana Kala Bharathi would be a tribute to the glorious history of the state of Telangana.
The Banjara Bhavan for Scheduled Tribes at Banjara Hills, to be called Kumaram Bheem Bhavan, has been bogged down by court cases. One more building in the same place for Scheduled Castes and named after Babu Jagjivan Ram was also sanctioned.
