Fire at new Secretariat: Congress seeks clarity

Hyderabad: Former Minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Friday demanded that the State government issue a clarification on the incident of a massive fire that broke out in the under-construction building of the new Secretariat.

Former Minister Shabbir Ali, TPCC senior vice-president Dr Mallu Ravi, TPCC working president M Anjan Kumar Yadav, Khairtabad DCC president Dr Rohin Reddy and other leaders were detained by the police when they tried to visit the new Secretariat to inspect the damage caused due to a fire incident in the early hours of Friday. They were stopped at Congress headquarters Gandhi Bhavan itself by the Hyderabad Police and they were taken into custody when they tried to come out. They were shifted to Goshamahal Police Station and released later.

Speaking to media persons, Shabbir Ali accused KCR govt of trying to hush up the fire incident by calling it a 'mock drill'. "TPCC president A Revanth Reddy has constituted a TPCC Fact Finding committee to study the damage caused to the new Secretariat building which is being constructed at a cost of over Rs 550 crore of public money. However, BRS govt is trying to hide the truth by calling the incident a 'mock drill'. It is a public building and people have a right to know all the details related to the fire incident," he said.

He asked as to why BRS govt was afraid of allowing opposition leaders to inspect the place if the incident was a 'mock drill'. "This is apparently the first time in history that a mock drill was conducted in an under-construction and unfinished building at 3 am in the night. The fire ignited for the mock drill was so intense it reportedly took 11 fire tenders to put it off," he said adding that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao should stop forcing the police officials to speak such non-sense and illogical theories.

The Congress leader asked CM KCR to explain as to why he was maintaining so much secrecy about the new Secretariat building. "Opposition was neither informed nor taken into confidence when the old Secretariat buildings were demolished. They were not invited to the foundation stone laying ceremony. Even now, when the new building caught fire, the opposition does not have permission to even visit the place to check the damage. Since the building is being constructed with public money, as the responsible opposition it is our duty to enquire about the causes, and extent of damage and also check whether any casualty was reported. However, KCR Govt is behaving as if was constructing some secret war bunker and not the Secretariat building.

"KCR has demolished two mosques and a temple to construct a new Secretariat to satisfy his superstitious beliefs. Now KCR is hit by a curse for demolishing those places of worship," he alleged. (NSS)