The official residential bungalow of Bharat Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao when he was the chief minister till recently at Pragati Bhavan in Begumpet will now be the official residence of deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.
Telangana chief secretary Shanti Kumari on Wednesday issued orders allotting the official bungalow of former chief minister KCR on the premises of Pragati Bhavan, which is now renamed as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan, to Bhatti Vikramarka, who is also holding the portfolio of finance.
KCR had constructed Pragati Bhavan as the permanent official bungalow and camp office of the CMO at Begumpet, which he had converted into a virtual fortress with iron barricades and banned the entry of commoners into the premises.
Now, newly-appointed chief minister A Revanth Reddy refused to use it as an official bungalow and reportedly preferred to continue to stay in his Jubilee Hills residence where he was staying. Consequently, the Praja Bhavan was allotted to the Deputy Chief Minister.
Pragati Bhavan was constructed like a fortress in a sprawling nine-acre campus 2016 at a cost of nearly Rs 50 crore and another Rs 4 crore was spent on beautification of the same in the last four years.
It 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.
After Congress came to power last week, it was renamed as Jyothiba Phule Praja Bhavan. While the residential bungalow would be used by Bhatti Vikramarka, the other buildings would be restricted to Revanth Reddy and his cabinet colleagues meeting people, taking representations from them and if necessary, hold official meetings and press conferences.