SC refuses to entertain plea to stop Telangana secretariat demolition

New Delhi, July 17: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a plea to stop the Telangana government from demolishing State Secretariat Buildings.

The petition challenged the decision to demolish the buildings spanning 10 lakh square feet set in 25.5 acres. The new secretariat would cost Rs 10,000 crore of public money and hence the demolition should be stopped the petitioner contended.

However, the court refused to entertain the petition and rejected the same. While rejecting the petition, the Supreme Court quoted the High Court which had said that there were several deficiencies in the buildings.

The K Chandrashekhar Rao-led Government began razing to the ground the old secretariat on July 7, days after the HighCourtdismissed a bunch of PILs challenging the states decision to construct a new secretariat complex by demolishing the existing one.

The petitioners alleged that the demolition of the existing structures is an "arbitary action" of the state government in a pandemic situation, and deprives five lakh people of the surrounding areas from getting clean air.

After the High Court cleared the decks for the construction of the new secretariat, the demolition of the old secretariat building complex beganand the foundation stone for the new one was laid on June 27, 2019.

The state government earlier indicated that the new secretariat which would come up in about seven lakh sq ft would cost around Rs 400 crore and it had decided to equip the new one with state-of-the-art connectivity and other features.