Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti government’s decision to move the Telangana secretariat to a new location in Erragadda has opened a can of worms with almost the entire opposition launching a blistering attack on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s “obsession” with vastu shastra (means science of architecture and construction similar to the Chinese feng shui).

The state cabinet yesterday put its seal of approval to the idea of constructing a new secretariat at an estimated cost of Rs1.5 billion (Dh90 million).

While some advised him to keep his “beliefs” confined to home, others have alleged that the decision to build a new secretariat as per Vastu was prompted by his fear of a revolt by his nephew T Harish Rao.

“Chief Minister does not have any right to waste Rs1.5 billion of public money in the name of Vastu,” said Mohammad Ali Shabbir, Congress leader in legislative council. He advised KCR to stop treating Telangana as his “personal or family estate”.

Shabbir said all problems of Telangana would be solved only when KCR was removed from power.

Another Congress leader Bhatti Vikramarka said: “He is promoting superstitious beliefs as he is afraid that his nephew can stage a revolt against him”. He was referring to T Harish Rao, a senior minister and a close aide of the Chief Minister.

“It is ridiculous to say that because of a Vastu defect no government in the past could work effectively. So many chief ministers have left a good mark with their good work”, he said.

Congress threatened to launch an agitation if the move was not withdrawn. The Congress leaders alleged that the move to shift the secretariat from the present location was aimed at benefiting the land mafia.

Previously too the opposition Telugu Desam had tried to use Harish Rao’s name suggesting that KCR should make way for Harish Rao as he was young and more dynamic.

Telugu Desam deputy leader in Telangana assembly Revanth Reddy said the present secretariat was good for the people of Telangana and not good for dictatorial rulers. “It was only after the construction of this secretariat that Nizam’s rule came to an end. Similarly the rule of Andhra over Telangana also ended with this secretariat”, he added.

He wanted to know which pandit (Hindu priest) had advised him the present secretariat had a Vastu defect.

State BJP President G Kishan Reddy also lashed out at KCR saying he was behaving like the Nizam. He said the decision to shift the secretariat was unilateral and arbitrary, while taking objection to KCR using public money to construct new buildings.

Heritage activists were also up in arms against the proposed move to shift the secretariat as both the present and proposed site have heritage buildings built by the Nizams.

The present secretariat was originally Saifabad Palace and parts of the old building were still intact. All attempts by the previous governments to pull down G Block was resisted by the activists. They fear that once the secretariat was moved out and buildings auctioned, the heritage structure will be demolished.

Similarly is the case with the Chest Hospital in Erragadd located in a Nizam era heritage building, which KCR was planning to pull down to make way for the new secretariat buildings.

State CPI leader K Narayana targeted both KCR and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for their fetish. “While the Vatsu bug has bitten KCR, Naidu has been bitten by the yoga bug”, he said.

He was referring to the three day long yoga programme organised by the Naidu government for ministers and MLAs at a cost of millions of rupees. The training programme by Jaggi Vasudev was personally attended by Naidu.

“It is all being done to divert public attention from the real issue”, said Narayana.