BJP slams Telangana govt over demolition of old secretariat buildings amidst pandemic

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday strongly protested against the "atrocious" action of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government in demolishing the old secretariat buildings in the midst of a global pandemic crisis.

"While Chief Ministers across the country are busy building and expanding infrastructure to accommodate COVID-19 patients, unfortunately Telangana state has a chief minister, who is busy demolishing the existing infrastructure, which can easily be turned into a massive facility to accommodate thousands of COVID-19 patients," the political party added in its statement.

"The state is in the middle of a serious public health crisis with COVID-19 spike and people are dying in hoards with lack of medical support and hospital beds for the last few weeks. Telangana state is now rated as the second highest in the rate of infection, while it stands at number one position in conducting lowest number of COVID-19 tests in its population category. CM KCR seems to be hardly worried and untouched by these alarming statistics," the statement added.

The BJP was of the view that the old secretariat buildings complex could have been easily turned into a 20,000 bed facility and added: "These buildings are functional and strong and demolishing them is a pure waste of tax-payers money."

It also slammed Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao for not doing enough for the people who are facing serious health crisis in the state.

"CM KCR has once again proved incompetent and incapable to rise to the occasion, to serve people of the state who are in serious health crisis. KCR has prioritised his own whims and fancies over public health in the state, by brazenly demolishing the old secretariat buildings," the statement added.

( With inputs from ANI )