A delegation of TRS MPs led by AP Jithender Reddy approached Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Friday reiterating their demand to transfer the Bison Polo Grounds, defence land to the state government.
The TRS MPs urged the PM to transfer Bison Polo Ground, Gymkhana ground and a parcel of Secunderabad land, so that the state government could construct a new Secretariat. The request was made despite facing stiff resistance from residents and the Opposition.
Speaking to media, Jithender Reddy said, “In Karnataka, when the state government demanded the defence land citing traffic inconvenience, Minister Nirmala Sitaraman had immediately granted them 210 acres. But, our long pending request is being is still being delayed. She asked us to write two separate letters for our proposal. This is just to cause a deliberate delay,” he alleged.
He recalled, “When we approached them [Centre] with a proposal for constructing a flyover to ease the traffic [near Patny] which had turned into a bottleneck, the then Defence Minister [Arun Jaitley] principally agreed to it.”
On Thursday, the TRS MPs accused the Centre of being biased towards Telangana and even protested in the Lok Sabha raising slogans, “one country… one policy”. Subsequently, the Lok Sabha was adjourned for 15 minutes.
During the zero hour, Jithendar Reddy who is TRS’ floor leader pointed out that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, during his stint as Defence Minister, had agreed to give defence lands for the construction of a new Secretariat, but Nirmala Sitharaman is delaying the same.
He further alleged that the Defence Minister is working in favour of AP but not helping Telangana.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has in the past requested Prime Minister Modi to sanction the defence land to construct a new Secretariat. His visit to Delhi, two months ago had this subject on agenda.
In June 2017, the Centre had agreed to the state’s proposal of offering 598 acres of state government land along with an additional Rs 96 crore as compensation for sanctioning the defence land. However, there was no progress in this regard.
The state government’s demand to construct a new Secretariat due to ‘Vaasthu’ problems in the existing structure have been resisted by the residents of Secunderabad. The residents have carried out several campaigns against the government encroaching the Bison Polo Grounds – one of the few green spaces in the city.