The AP Chief Minister recently informed some of his party leaders that Mr Chandrasekhar Rao, while complimenting him for selecting a vaastu-compliant capital site in Guntur district on the banks of the river Krishna, had also said that he would dump the Secretariat soon since it was totally against the principles of vaastu.
“Mr Naidu told us that Mr Rao had told him about his decision to dump the Secretariat for a new building since it was against vaastu. He did not reveal where and when.
While he seemed happy with Mr Rao’s compliment on the new capital, the Secretariat vaastu issue seems to be lingering in his mind though he isn’t a strong believer,” a TD leader told this newspaper.
Mr Naidu, who is currently functioning from the L Block in the Secretariat in the joint capital of Hyderabad, has already planned to move some of his heads of departments to Vijayawada soon.
The TD leader, however, said that it could also be a ploy of Mr Rao to scare Mr Naidu and see that he moved to Vijayawada with bag and baggage at the earliest.
Though Mr Naidu doesn’t speak his mind in public on issues like vaastu, he did allow his brother-in-law, MLA and actor Balakrishna, to undertake vastu changes at NTR Trust Bhavan before the 2014 elections.
The move went down well as he returned to power after a gap of 10 years in the newly carved out first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
The Secretariat not being vastu complaint is not a new revelation as the issue had come to the fore during N.T. Rama Rao’s regime and he had constructed a wall to ward off the ill effects.
During Mr Naidu’s earlier rule, a vastu expert had said that a building should not be located in front of a pit, lake or the likes.
In fact, every CM and minister in every government has done vastu changes in his or her offices.
‘Vaastu defect’ reason for shifting
Telangana secretariat, says CM
The Telangana government presently shares the secretariat complex with
the government of Andhra Pradesh.
By: Press Trust of India
Hyderabad | January 31, 2015 02:28 IST
The Telangana government Friday said it would be constructing a new state secretariat building in Hyderabad, leaving the present building for various reasons including “Vaastu defect”.
The new complex would be built at a site in Erragadda where a state-run chest hospital, built during the Nizam era, currently stands, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao said on Friday night after a marathon cabinet meeting in Hyderabad.
The building is 278 feet tall and is compliant with modern-day requirements. 9Twitter/@arvindkumar_ias
Telangana’s
new secretariat: Stalin, Soren, Tejashwi among national leaders to attend
inauguration on KCR’s birthday
The new
secretariat complex, spread across 7 lakh square feet in a 25-acre campus, is
estimated to cost over Rs 600 crore.
By: Express News Service
Hyderabad | January 24, 2023 15:31 IST
Chief
Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will inaugurate Telangana’s new secretariat complex,
named after Dr B R Ambedkar, between 11.30 am and 12.30 pm on February 17,
minister for roads and buildings, legislative affairs and housing Vemula
Prashanth Reddy said Tuesday. In the afternoon, the ruling Bharat Rashtra
Samithi (BRS) will also hold a mega public meeting at the Parade Ground in
Secunderabad.
In
attendance during the ceremony as well as the public meeting will be Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin,
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant
Soren, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav representing Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar, president of Janata
Dal United (JDU) Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh, besides social
activist-politician Prakash Ambedkar, who is a grandson of Dr B R Ambedkar
Recently in
Khammam, the BRS held a mega rally in which
chief ministers of Kerala, Delhi and Punjab — Pinarayi Vijayan, Arvind Kejriwal, and Bhagwant
Mann — along with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh
Yadav and general secretary of CPI D Raja took part and
addressed the gathering.
February 17
happens to be CM Rao’s birthday and the time for the inauguration was decided
based on Vedic scholars’ suggestions. According to the minister, Vedic scholars
will perform vastu puja, chandi yagam and sudarshana yagam before the
inauguration of the building. The new secretariat complex, spread across 7 lakh
square feet in a 25-acre campus, is estimated to cost over Rs 600 crore.
The building
is 278 feet tall and is compliant with modern-day requirements. The old
secretariat was demolished in July 2020 citing bad vasthu and unscientific
layout of buildings. All ten buildings, including a Nizam-era palace built in
1882 and other places of worship, were razed. The government has now
constructed a temple, a church and a mosque within the campus.
The Telangana high court cleared the decks for the state government to go ahead with construction of a new Secretariat complex with ultramodern facilities, and perfect Vaastu, in the Bison Polo grounds at Secunderabad.
A division bench of the high court, hearing a batch of petitions opposing the transfer of the Bison Polo Grounds, a sport facility belonging to the Union ministry of Defence, issued an interim order asking the Centre to go ahead with the official procedure in transfer of land to the state government.
The court posted the matter to February 12 for further hearing. The Telangana government already submitted an affidavit to the court stating that the Centre had agreed in principle to transfer 55 acres of land to the state for construction of Secretariat complex, besides the state assembly and other official buildings.
The government has offered an alternative piece of land to the ministry of defence on the city outskirts in lieu of the transfer of Bison Polo Grounds, besides paying monetary compensation as per the norms.
During the previous tenure, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had taken the decision to construct a new secretariat complex at the 55-acre Bison Polo grounds adjacent to Secunderabad parade grounds, since he believed that the existing Secretariat was too congested and was against the Vaastu (ancient study of architecture).
In fact, during his entire tenure between 2014 and 2018, KCR had not gone to the existing Secretariat as he had felt something was wrong with its architecture. He ran his administration from his new official-cum-residential complex Pragathi Bhavan in Begumpet.
Even cabinet meetings and other official review meetings were held at Pragati Bhavan, a practice which he is continuing even after returning to power after the December 7 elections.
KCR’s official Vaastu consultant Suddala Sudhakar Teja said there were some serious Vaastu problems in the existing Secretariat, as it lacked proper ventilation.
“An administrative building should have flow of natural energy from all sides, greenery and enough moving space. A healthy and good working environment will help the ruler in proper decision making,” he advised.
During a discussion in the state assembly last year, opposition members resisted the move to abandon the existing secretariat and construct a new one at Bison Polo grounds, but KCR was firm in his stand. He also announced that his government would also construct a new assembly building and a cultural centre at the new venue.
“The existing Secretariat and assembly buildings have become congested and outlived their utility. We need structures that sustain for another 100 years,” he argued.
Meet the Vaastu consultant who gives shape to Telangana CM
KCR’s dreams
Hindustan Times | By
Srinivasa
Rao Apparasu, Hyderabad
Oct 30, 2016 01:15 PM IST
Suddala Sudhakar Teja is neither an influential politician,
nor a senior bureaucrat. Yet, he carries so much clout in Telanagana run by
chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) that nothing gets built in the state
without his approval.
KCR’s Vaastu advisor Suddala Sudhakar Teja.(HT Photo)
Appointed an adviser to the state’s Roads and Buildings
department with all the privileges reserved for cabinet ministers, Teja is
KCR’s trusted Vaastu consultant who now ensures that all constructions
undertaken in Telangana are compliant with the traditional Hindu system of
architecture.
A big believer in Vaastu, KCR stopped operating out of the
Hussain Sagar lake-facing state secretariat long time ago as he felt the
complex lacked positive vibes. It is now to be demolished and replaced with new
structures at a cost of Rs 1,200 crore.
Renowned architect Hafeez Contractor has been tasked with
drawing up the designs of the new complex. But the catch is the designs have to
be in sync with Teja’s Vaastu suggestions.
“I am, perhaps, the first Vaastu consultant appointed as
adviser by any state government in the country. It’s an honour,” Teja, 50, told
HT.
The chief minister’s opponents say it is a colossus waste of
money. “The money could have been better spent on welfare measures,” said T
Jeevan Reddy, the Congress legislator who has challenged the demolition plan in
the high court. “How come the same secretariat was good enough to run undivided
Andhra Pradesh for the past six decades,” questioned G Kishan Reddy of the BJP.
But Teja insists it will be money well spent. “There are
some serious Vaastu problems in the existing secretariat. The buildings should
have perfect ventilation, flow of natural energy from all sides, greenery and
enough moving space. Vaastu is not a superstition, but a spiritual science,” he
said.
“A healthy and good working environment will help the chief
minister in effective decision-making,” he added.
A post-graduate in theatre arts and Telugu, Teja had been
KCR’s favourite Vaastu adviser even before taking up his official role. The
chief minister built his house in Hyderabad’s upscale Banjara Hills
neighbourhood as per his advice. Teja’s inputs were also sought when KCR held a
massive Yagna to propitiate the Gods at his farmhouse in Medak district last
year.
Since a mighty pleased KCR rewarded him with the official
position, Teja sits at all meetings of the Roads and Buildings department,
overseeing plans for constructing government buildings and laying new roads.
“Roads are not the problem. Constructing buildings are
trickier,” Teja says. If all goes well, several landmarks will come up in
Hyderabad soon with his imprint.
Among them is the chief minister’s new official residence at
Begumpet built at a cost of Rs 35 crores. A 125-foot Ambedkar statue at NTR
Gardens and a Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial in the city’s Lumbini Park are also
on the drawing board.
The country’s second tallest Tricolour that proudly flutters
at the Sanjeevaiah Park of the city also had his approval.
Teja, however, is modest about his achievements. Hailing
from a family of Communists – his father was a folk singer and his brother a
film lyricist – he considers himself only to be a foot soldier in cementing
peace and tranquility in Telangana with the new constructions.
“I am not an engineer or architect. I have learnt Vaastu out
of curiosity and mastered it as a science,” he says.
This Article is From Apr 30, 2023
KCR Inaugurates New Telangana Secretariat Building,
Targets "Political Lilliputs"
Slamming his detractors, KCR said, "Some Political
Lilliputs enemies created hurdles to the construction of the new Secretariat by
demolishing the old building in the same place".
Telangana NewsReported
by Uma SudhirUpdated:
April 30, 2023 10:43 pm IST
Hyderabad:
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao inaugurated a
new Secretariat building, 265 feet tall and built over 10.5 lakh square feet in
a sprawling 28 acres, in Hyderabad today. "Today is a red letter day in
the history of Telangana," he said after inaugurating the structure.
"The marvel structure of the new Secretariat is the
epicentre of the state administration. I feel blessed and fortunate to have
inaugurated the wonderful new secretariat," he added.
The building has been named after BR Ambedkar with the
intention that people's representatives and the entire government machinery
should work to realise the ideals of the Architect of the Indian Constitution,
the Chief Minister, popularly known as KCR, said.
Slamming his detractors, KCR said, "Some Political
Lilliputs enemies created hurdles to the construction of the new Secretariat by
demolishing the old building in the same place". "Reconstruction of
Telangana means reviving all the lakes in the State that remained dry due to
lack of attention in the undivided Andhra Pradesh," he added.
A 'Sudarsana Yagam' was performed from 6 AM and Mr Rao
occupied his chambers on the sixth floor in the newly-constructed building
after the rituals concluded at around 1.30 PM. The Ministers of the State
government also occupied their respective chambers.
KCR at the newly-constructed building.
Considering the inadequacies of the former Secretariat
complex built during undivided Andhra Pradesh, a government-appointed expert
committee favoured the construction of a new building.
The Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for the
construction of the Secretariat on June 27, 2019, but the works started only in
January 2021, delayed by the covid-19 pandemic, court cases and other issues.
Vemula Prashant Reddy, minister of Legislative Affairs and
Housing of Telangana, had said the new Secretariat will expedite the completion
of work and coordination between the ministers, secretaries and officials.
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"The older secretariat had blocks which were 70 years
old, a few were 40 years old, and some others, built 20 years ago appear old
and unorganised. The ministers, secretaries, and other officials used to sit at
different blocks, which made the work a lengthy and challenging affair,"
Mr Reddy said.
1CommentsThe domes
of the new Secretariat have been built in the styles of the Neelakanteswara
Swamy temple of the Kakatiya period in Nizamabad, designs of the palaces of the
royals of Wanaparthy 'Samsthanam' in Telangana and the pattern of the Hanuman
temple in Sarangpur, Gujarat, according to a government release.
Telangana:
Entry to exit, it’s vastu all the way at the Secretariat
Revanth decides to work from Sky Lounge which is being remodelled to house the CMO
The main
gate of the Secretariat in Hyderabad seen tied shut with binding wire on Monday
following the decision to adopt vastu-compliant entry and exit. Photo |
Vinay Madapu
Updated
on:
04 Jun 2024,
8:02 am
HYDERABAD:
By all accounts, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is following in the footsteps
of his predecessor and BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao, at least in matters of
vastu.
KCR, who
considers vastu an important aspect, built a new “vastu-compliant” Secretariat
by demolishing the old one. After losing power to the Congress in 2023, he made
changes to the Telangana Bhavan, the BRS party office.
Now, for the
first time after the Congress stormed to power in December 2023, the chief
minister has decided to make changes to the Secretariat as per vastu, including
shifting his office to another floor.
Till now,
the chief minister’s convoy used to enter the Secretariat from the main gate.
Reportedly following suggestions of vastu pandits, Revanth has started entering
the Secretariat from from the west gate and exiting from the northeast gate.
On Monday,
officials concerned closed the main gate which is meant for the entry and exit
of the chief minister. Also, IAS, IPS and other important officers will enter
and exit the Secretariat from the southeast gate.
Meanwhile,
the Chief Minister Office (CMO) is likely to shift from the sixth floor to the
ninth floor, which is called the Sky Lounge. Sources said that the Sky Lounge
is being remodelled as per the vastu design philosophy to accommodate the CMO.
Presently,
the CMO operates from the sixth floor in the Secretariat out of eight floors
(lower ground, ground floor plus six). The sixth floor was chosen by KCR for
the CMO as he believed 6 was his lucky number. The entire floor has bulletproof
windows.
The Sky
Lounge was designed to host the guests of the chief minister, including foreign
delegates.
The
Secretariat has 635 rooms, 30 conference halls and 24 elevators. There are 34
domes to the structure.
Courtesy Deccan Archive
The Saifabad Curse
The Government of Telangana has commissioned a new Secretariat building amid a pandemic. Yes, amid a global crisis. This blog is not critical of the decisions of the state but a protest against the planned and systematic erasure of the city’s prized legacy and heritage. Reminder: Living in a democracy, voicing dissent is not seditious.
The neglected and 'cursed' Saifabad Palace. Wikimedia Commons.
A secretariat is an administrative office for various departments of governance in a state.
The Telangana state portal states there are 32 departments based on the rules of business, from which the business of state governance is transacted.
The official head of each department is the secretary to the government. These departments range from Agriculture, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry to Education and Healthcare. The previous secretariat housed all of these departments and everything functioned effortlessly.
The same secretariat complex even housed governments of two states for a brief period after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The building was to be shared in the ratio 58:42 by both the states which will continue till 2024 as per the Act and was to be transferred to Telangana in 2024.
However, an interim secretariat for the state of Andhra Pradesh was inaugurated in Amravati in 2016 and the government vacated the Saifabad Secretariat to occupy the newly built interim facility in Amravati.
Telangana had the entire secretariat complex to itself since Andhra Pradesh moved out. It was only a matter of time when there were concerns of Vaastu (traditional Indian science of architecture) in the existing buildings of the secretariat.
The government, a firm believer in Vaastu, had vacated the G block (Saifabad Palace) or the Peshi, a Nizam era structure and plans to replace it with a Vaastu-compliant structure were drawn up. Our leader is a great optimist to believe that building a new block on the existing site would lift the curse (if it exists).
The crime scene.
"Definitely this secretariat has bad Vaastu. History is proof that no-one has prospered because of this. Let Telangana not suffer," the Chief Minister said.
The Saifabad Palace or the G block was built during the
reign of Nizam VI Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Bahadur in 1888. A couple of Nobles
under the Nizam had ulterior motives towards Saifabad Palace and conspired to
shoo away the Nizam from occupying it. It is
said, “Mahboob Ali Pasha, was on his way to inspect the construction of the
palace in what was then the kingdom of Hyderabad.
The two nobles ensured that a monitor lizard crossed his path - a bad omen.”
The superstitious Nizam had the Palace locked up immediately. It was not until the 1940s that the building was reopened to house the State secretariat of the Nizam’s dominions. The Hyderabad state ‘fell’ soon after this in September of 1948.
It appears that this notion has carried itself into the 21st century when the head of the Government had deemed the structure ‘unlucky’ for the establishment and the state. In early July 2020, the High court of Telangana had cleared the path for the demolition of the secretariat buildings at Saifabad.
It took many by surprise when the demolition was done on a war-footing amid a raging pandemic. There were restrictions on the travel of people along the routes of the Secretariat and no media was allowed to cover the demolition. The move was so swift that the buildings were razed down even before people could realise what was happening.
If times were ‘normal’, had there been no pandemic, there sure would have been opposition to the move. The decision would have been met by protests by heritage enthusiasts as well as whatever is left of the political opposition in the state.
But thanks to the pandemic and its lockdown, the demolition was swift and efficient. The Telugu Talli flyover was closed as it provided a clear view of the Secretariat. With religious and educational institutions closed, no one could access the Birla Mandir or the Birla Science Complex on Naubat Pahad that offers a birdseye view of the immediate surroundings.
In just one day the Saifabad Palace was lost forever, it was not even properly documented as it was off-limits of the general public and access to it would have only been possible through deep contacts in the bureaucracy.
The Nizam's Secretariat, Mint, Electricity and PWD building on the site of current secratariat. Munn Maps, Kalakriti Archive. September 1913.
Map of South Hussain Sagar area showing the extent of the
lake, the Naubat Pahad, the Secretariat, the railway line etc. Courtesy:
Kalakriti Archives.
There was outrage on the internet, where citizens and the opposition expressed disappointment over the priorities of the authorities amid a health crisis. On July 11, the Telangana High Court stayed the demolition until 13 July due to a PIL filed by the opposition.
The High Court later cleared the demolition once again and the state went ahead with it. In addition to the controversy, two mosques and a temple in the secretariat complex were ‘accidentally’ demolished by the authorities.
The incident infuriated both communities and the Chief Minister had expressed grief over the erasure of the three places of worship. While activists cried foul-play, the government had announced that a new temple and a mosque will be built in the new campus, however, these announcements were not reflected in the plans submitted by Oscar and Ponni Architects, the designers of the new secretariat.
The new Secretariat is going to cost upwards of 400 crore rupees to the tax-payer. A common question among all groups is the necessity of a swanky new secretariat when the healthcare is struggling to cope with the pandemic despite a 76-day lockdown aimed at strengthening the medical sector in the fight against the virus.
A 400 crore investment in healthcare would be directly beneficial to the common man. There were theories drawn by people that the state is after a Nizam-era treasure under the Saifabad Palace and hence the demolition was carried out in secrecy. The media was let inside the razed complex filled in congested buses and semi-trucks ignoring social distancing protocols, that too after 90% demolition was completed.
Photographs from ground zero, when the media was taken on a
guided tour by the officials. July 27.
The first draft released to the public, 'heavily inspired' from Osmania General Hospital heritage block. The Osmania General Hospital building by Vincent Gerome Etsch. The approved design of the new Secretariat, designed in the previously non-existent 'Deccan Kakatiya' style. The architects later issued a contradictory statement that the design is inspired by the Thousand Pillar temple in Warangal and not inspired by Asaf Jahi Architecture.
cc: The New Indian Express
After injustice to heritage, places of worship, healthcare and taxpayer money, one might think the disappointments have passed. Sadly, the new design drafted by Oscar and Ponni architects was abysmal, to be polite.
It is a greater injustice to the Hyderabad aesthetic than all of the above factors combined. The initial images of the new building circulated on social media platforms resembled the Osmania General Hospital building. The new Secretariat appeared to be a spitting image of OGH with a couple of tweaks.
The designers and architects of the city were appalled by the odd-looking Venetian dome and landscaped Italian gardens. Oscar and Ponni architects have claimed the building is an amalgamation of Telangana’s many cultures and termed it as a piece of ‘Deccan Kakatiya’ style.
For the laymen, it makes no difference but for the enthusiasts, it is infuriating and unjust. Also, the new building is supposed to be 278 feet high, for your reference, the Charminar is 183 feet high, the tallest dome at Qutb Shahi Necropolis is 196 feet high and the Taj Mahal is 240 feet high.
Yes, the new secretariat will be larger in scale than the Taj Mahal. Nowhere in the Deccan can one find a building that appears to have 7 floors and still manage to be 278 feet tall. The scale of the building does not match with any other building neither in Kakatiya style nor in the Qutub Shahi/Asaf Jahi.
It would be awkward to see a gigantic Venetian dome rising from Saifabad when one stands at the Tank Bund. It would be much more atrocious at night when the skyline would be lit up but all attention would be grabbed by a humongous Italian Taj Mahal illuminated in flashy RGB colours in the backdrop of a faint pearly Birla Mandir.
"We are sometimes eager to celebrate the influence
of our surroundings. In the living room of a house in the Czech Republic, we
see an example of how walls, chairs and floors can combine to create an
atmosphere in which the best sides of us are offered the opportunity to
flourish. We accept with gratitude the power that a single room can possess.
But sensitivity to architecture also has its more
problematic aspects. If one room can alter how we feel, if our happiness can
hang on the colour of the walls or the shape of a door, what will happen to us
in most of the places we are forced to look at and inhabit? What will we
experience in a house with prison-like windows, stained carpet tiles and
plastic curtains?"
Secretariat to Undergo Vastu Changes
Telangana
L. Venkat Ram Reddy
3 June 2024 10:54 PM
CMO to be shifted from 6th floor to 9th floor Telangana State Secretariat. (Image: Wikipedia) Hyderabad:
The Telangana State Secretariat, built for Rs 1,500 crore by then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, is reportedly set to undergo 'vastu' changes again. Gate 3 is being used by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and the ministers were locked on Sunday night as part of this.
They will use Gate 4 on the west side for entry and exit from the north-east until the vastu defects are rectified at Gate 3, official sources said. IAS and IPS officers will be entering the Secretariat from the south-east gate.
Telangana accused of inaction against pubs creating noise pollution Advertisement Although there was no official confirmation, the sudden locking of Gate 3 led to speculation that it was done to make vastu changes to suit Revanth Reddy.
After inaugurating the Secretariat in April last year, Chandrashekar Rao did not work for long from the new structure because the Assembly poll code kicked in in October. Rao had located the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) on the sixth floor — six being his lucky number.
After working from the same office, it is learnt that Revanth Reddy has decided to relocate to the ninth and top floor, with nine said to be his lucky number. Officials are making arrangements for the shift.
The top three floors of the Secretariat are currently unused. After Revanth Reddy took over as CM, the Secretariat underwent one vastu change in February this year: The big gates located at the bottom of the 'Baahubali doors' were replaced with small gates through which the CM's convoy passes
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