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KCR’s favourite building Pragati Bhavan ceases to be Revanth’s camp office
Pragati Bhavan, the erstwhile official bungalow of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is most likely to cease to be the camp office of the chief minister under the new Congress government, people familiar with the matter said
Pragati Bhavan, the erstwhile official bungalow of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is most likely to cease to be the camp office of the chief minister under the new Congress government, people familiar with the matter said.
The sprawling building, built on a nine-acre land at Begumpet in the heart of the city, which was renamed as Jyothiba Phule Praja Bhavan within hours of the formation of new government, would be restricted to new chief minister A Revanth Reddy and his cabinet colleagues meeting people, taking representations from them and if necessary, hold official meetings and press conferences.
An official in the chief minister’s office privy to the development said Revanth Reddy is contemplating shifting his camp office from Praja Bhavan to Marri Channa Reddy Human Resources Development Institute (MCRHRD), which is closer to his residence at Jubilee Hills. The institute is presently being utilised as a training centre for bureaucrats, technocrats and other top officials.
On Sunday, the chief minister made a surprising visit to the MCRHRD Institute and inspected all the buildings. In all probability, the Vivekananda Block of the Institute might be used as the camp office of the chief minister, the official said.
“Spread over 30 acres, the two-floored building and its sprawling premises is a little deeper from the main road; as such, it hardly causes any inconvenience to the people. It has all the facilities including huge parking space for officials. So, it would be safe and secure for the chief minister’s camp office to hold meetings,” the official said.
In any case, Revanth Reddy prefers to go to the Secretariat regularly to attend his normal duties regularly, unlike KCR who hardly visited the secretariat complex despite constructing such a massive structure on the banks of Hussainsagar.
The official said Revanth Reddy also doesn’t want to use the official residence of the chief minister at Pragati Bhavan (now Jyothiba Phule Praja Bhavan), which has been constructed like a fortress in 2016 at a cost of nearly ₹50 crore.
Pragati Bhavan was built after demolishing 10 IAS Officers’ quarters and 24 peon quarters at the officers’ colony. It is the collection of five buildings- the residence, the chief minister’s office, Janahitha (meeting hall), the old CM residence, and the camp office.
Meanwhile, the new chief minister has also started focussing on restructuring the administration. So far, he has not yet disturbed the top bureaucracy, including the chief secretary, director general of police, commissioners of police and the superintendents of police in districts.
“He has brought in only two people -- senior IPS officer B Shivadhar Reddy and IAS officer V Seshadri as the Telangana intelligence chief and secretary to the chief minister, respectively, within hours of taking charge as the chief minister. But he is working on making an overhaul of administration in the next couple of days,” people familiar with the matter said.
On Sunday, the Revanth Reddy government disbanded as many as 54 corporations and other organisations, removing their chairpersons with immediate effect. All of them were appointed during the BRS government.
Along with the chairpersons, services of all their personal staff engaged on contract, outsourcing and hire basis were also terminated. Regular employees from various departments, who were drafted into these corporations, were repatriated to their parent departments, an order issued by chief secretary Santhi Kumari said.
