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Jagan orders demolition of Naidu’s ‘Praja Vedika’, TDP calls it vendetta

HYDERABAD: Describing it as an illegal structure, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy today ordered the demolition of “Praja Vedika”, a portion of the residence N Chandrababu Naidu, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president.

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Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, June 24

Describing it as an illegal structure, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy today ordered the demolition of “Praja Vedika”, a portion of the residence N Chandrababu Naidu, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president.

During a collectors’ conference at the same venue, Reddy said the building was “illegal and hence has to go”.

Naidu had on June 4 written a letter to the Chief Minister expressing his wish to continue staying at “Undavalli”, a private property on the banks of River Krishna, and using “Praja Vedika” (people’s grievance cell), an extension of the building, for public meetings in the capacity of being Leader of Opposition.

Ignoring the request of Naidu, the CM said “Praja Vedika is a structure built in violation of the rules by the then Chief Minister and would be the first to go in the government’s drive against illegal structures”. The government took possession of the building on Saturday, while Naidu was holidaying abroad with his family. The residential portion where Naidu lives is a private property and the issue of its violating environmental and river laws is in court.

The TDP has termed the action as vendetta politics. The party says the former Naidu government constructed the building as per legal provisions. The Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) had spent Rs 5 crore drawn from public exchequer for the construction.

Meanwhile, the TDP has also accused CM Reddy of using double standards referring to an old case where way back in 2011 Reddy had got plans for his Hyderabad residence opposite the Lotus Pond regularised by bypassing the mandatory step of referring the matter to the building committee.

The TDP also questioned whether the action would be limited to “Praja Vedika” or extended to other buildings like Mantena’s, Iskon, Gokaraju’s, Ganapathi Sachidananda buildings etc.

GoM for new Telangana secretariat, Assembly

At the same time in Hyderabad, a Group of Ministers (GOM) appointed for construction of new Telangana Secretariat and Assembly building headed by Road and Buildings Minister V Prashanth Reddy has decided that the foundation for the new buildings would be laid by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on June 27.

“The GoM will examine various building plans, consult experts and come out with a blueprint on how to execute the projects. The appointment of the committee was taken at the recent cabinet meeting. The new secretariat will be Vaastu compliant,” sources said.

The new Assembly complex will come up at Errum Manzil, a building from the time of the Nizam, at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore. The new secretariat that will come up in about four lakh sq ft will cost around Rs 400 crore. Andhra Pradesh that was retaining some portion of the secretariat handed over all four blocks with it to Telangana paving way for the construction.

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