Vaastu hex set to cost Hyderabad its green lungs

Last weekend when the country’s attention was on the impending Cabinet reshuffle, the Government of India reportedly greenlighted a proposal to convert Hyderabad’s lung space into a concrete jungle.

“The Government of India has agreed to give the defence lands for construction of the new State Secretariat and for expansion of Medchal Highway and Karimnagar Rajiv Rahadari,” a press release from the Telangana Chief Minister’s office said.

This includes the Bison Polo Grounds in Secunderabad that is spread over 37.5 acres but given K Chandrasekhar Rao’s plan to build a brand new Secretariat, Assembly building and cultural complex, the government may end up taking over the neighbouring Gymkhana (23.6 acres) as well. The Gymkhana is the cradle of Hyderabad cricket, where talent like Mohammed Azharuddin, VVS Laxman and Venkatapathy Raju blossomed.

The total cost of the land is pegged at around Rs 500 crore and the defence units will be given land parcels in lieu of the grounds in Secunderabad in neighbouring districts.

For those unfamiliar with Hyderabad, building a modern workplace for the executive and the legislature and expand roads may sound like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. What Arun Jaitley who cleared the proposal as defence minister, perhaps did not know is that the present Secretariat is almost 50 per cent empty since the Andhra Pradesh employees have shifted base to Velagapudi near Vijayawada. The Secretariat building too is not a dilapidated structure and in fact, half its blocks are less than 10 years old, built when YS Rajasekhara Reddy was CM of united Andhra Pradesh. Structural engineers say even the older part of the Secretariat easily has a life of another half a century.

The reason for this desire for a new office is that KCR believes the Secretariat is bad according to Vaastu, which is an ancient treatise of architecture that determines how an office, home or any structure should be constructed, taking into account the direction of wind, light and the astrological chart of the head of the house or institution. Many dismiss Vaastu as mere superstition but KCR is on record saying it is the Secretariat’s bad Vaastu that was an impediment in the progress of united Andhra Pradesh first, and now Telangana. In March 2015, KCR said, “Definitely this Secretariat has bad Vaastu. History is proof that no one has prospered because of this. Let Telangana not suffer.”

For the same reason, KCR does not operate out of his office at the Secretariat. Instead, he got Pragathi Bhavan, an opulent chief minister’s office-cum-residence built at a cost of over Rs 40 crore last November. It is equipped with a meeting area and conference hall as well.

In fact, KCR moved into Pragathi Bhavan because the earlier official CM residence built by YSR in 2005 was reportedly not Vaastu-compliant.

The 104-year-old Legislative Assembly building, that served as the Town Hall during the Nizam era, is one of the architectural marvels in Hyderabad. More importantly, it is still in fine condition and there is really no case to shift the Assembly out. In fact, KCR wants the new building to be a replica of the present Assembly which makes one wonder why go for a xerox when the original exists.

Telangana Congress leaders have petitioned the Centre, asking it not to give away defence land. Party spokesperson M Krishank, who started an online campaign, says, “It is a citizen’s campaign and the signatories to the petition against giving away the land are citizens who are concerned about the environment.”

But KCR has refused to budge. When it was pointed out that these open spaces, especially the area around Gymkhana, are used by children as play areas, the CM retorted, “There are nearly 500 acres dedicated to sports grounds and stadia, and most of them are not being used for sports. This is nothing but an attempt to create hurdles for the construction of a state-of-the-art Secretariat and Assembly.”

The bigger danger is to the environment. The green cover and the lung space acts like a buffer and environmentalists say replacing the open area with brick and mortar would be akin to putting the city into a toxic gas chamber. While the government plans to widen roads and build flyovers, it will only result in an increased density of vehicular traffic, further compromising the environment.

The Telangana BJP, which is also objecting to this splurge of public money, points out that if Jaitley had agreed to hand over the land, allotment letters should have been issued.

“The Centre has given no assurance except to say it will look into the matter,” says Krishnasagar Rao, Telangana BJP leader. “The Telangana government is engaging in non-factual reportage. They want to corner the Centre so that tomorrow if the land is not given, they can say Telangana is neglected.”

With Hyderabadi Nirmala Sitharaman now at the helm of affairs in the Ministry of Defence, the city would hope she does not deal the environment at her home a body blow.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @Iamtssudhir.