Iron barricades in front of the Chief Minister’s office, Pragathi Bhavan, in Telangana, where CM K. Chandrashekar Rao used to stay, were removed on Thursday. The fence on Begumpet main road had caused a traffic bottleneck, and it was removed following a request from civil society groups. Earlier during the campaign, Revanth Reddy had said that he would remove it after Congress came to power.
The move comes at a time when the Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy, who led the Congress to a resounding win in Telangana by dethroning the BRS, will take oath as the next Chief Minister of the state on Thursday in Hyderabad.
The work to demolish the iron structure was started by the officials with the help of scores of municipal workers and by deploying two bulldozers and gas cutters, as reported by news agency IANS. The structure had come up during the term of former CM KCR.
According to IANS, the huge barricade with a canopy over it had occupied part of the busy road in Begumpet and was seen as an obstruction to vehicular traffic. The work began after the orders of Revanth Reddy and Congress leaders called it as the first step to remove the barriers between people and the government.
After the results of Telangana Polls were declared, Revanth Reddy made an announcement saying that CM’s official residence Pragati Bhavan will be renamed as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Praja Bhavan. After the grand old party came to power in the southern state, many people have been appealing for removal of the barricade, which was forcing pedestrians to walk on the road, increasing the risk of being hit by vehicles.
Talking about the Telangana Assembly election results, Congress won 64 seats, while BRS maintained a strong second position after winning 39 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party managed to win 8 seats, and AIMIM won seven constituencies.