HYDERABAD (PTI): The new Secretariat of Telangana has been named after Babasaheb B R Ambedkar with the intention that people's representatives and the entire government machinery should work to realise the ideals of the Architect of the Indian Constitution, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said on Sunday.

Rao inaugurated the new Secretariat complex, which stands 265 feet tall and is spread over an area of 10, 51,676 square feet in a sprawling of 28 acres of land here.

Speaking after the inauguration, the Chief Minister said he considered it the opportunity of a lifetime to have inaugurated this "magnificent secretariat complex".

"In order to take forward his (BR Ambedkar) ideals, to make all the employees and ministers who regularly come to the Secretariat to remember his name and keep his message in mind while working, we named our Secretariat, the epicenter of the State administration after BR Ambedkar," Rao said.

He further said that the Telangana agitation for a separate state had been peaceful following Gandhian ideology, and statehood was achieved due to Ambedkar's vision of enshrining Article 3 in the Constitution.

Slamming his detractors, KCR said rebuilding of Telangana does not mean that old structures will be demolished and new edifices will be erected.

"I want to tell some (political) dwarfs who do not know about the reconstruction of Telangana. Reconstruction of Telangana means reviving all the lakes in the State that remained dry due to lack of attention in the undivided Andhra Pradesh," he said.

He alleged that some forces, which could not digest the urge for reconstruction of Telangana, failed to see the overall development that the State is achieving.

Recalling the Telangana development, KCR said the State attracted investments worth lakhs of crores of rupees and was making rapid strides in the IT sector, even surpassing Bangalore as its hub.

The Chief Minister said the total paddy cultivation in the State stood at 56 lakh acres against 94 lakh acres all over the country during the current Yasangi (Rabi season).

He said that the earlier Planning Commission (since replaced by NITI Aayog) had kept nine districts of Telangana under the backward districts category, but now there were no villages as progressive as those of Telangana.

According to the Chief Minister, the per capita income of Telangana is the highest among all States in India even as per capita power consumption is also high which are the growth indicators and good economic development.

The Chief Minister thanked officials and stakeholders for striving hard for the development of the State.

A 'Sudarsana Yagam' was performed from 6 AM and Rao occupied his chambers in the sixth floor after the rituals concluded at around 1.30 PM.

The Ministers of the State government also occupied their respective chambers.

Considering the inadequacies of the former Secretariat complex built during undivided Andhra Pradesh, a government-appointed expert committee favoured construction of a new building.

The Chief Minister had laid the foundation stone for the construction of the Secretariat on June 27, 2019 but the works started only in January 2021, delayed by the covid-19 pandemic, court cases and other issues.

The building stands 265 feet tall, and a press release issued by the government said no state had such a tall Secretariat.

It is also one of the largest Secretariats in the country, the release added.

The domes of the new Secretariat have been built in the styles of the Neelakanteswara Swamy temple of the Kakatiya period in Nizamabad, designs of the palaces of the royals of Wanaparthy 'Samsthanam' in Telangana and the pattern of the Hanuman temple in Sarangpur, Gujarat, according to the release.

The construction was done "flawlessly" with the instructions of Roads and Buildings (R&B) department, IGBC (Indian Green Building Council), Telangana State Technological Services and the State police department, the release added.