File photo of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhara Rao aka KCR
The opposition has asked Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhara Rao aka KCR, why the tax payer should foot the bill for his vaastu fetish. Congress leader Jeevan Reddy called it his "fears and insecurities" in an attack in the state assembly.
The opposition is incensed at KCR's decision to shift the state secretariat.
"Wasting public money. If KCR is obsessed with Vaastu, let him make corrections in his home and personal spaces,'' said another Congress leader Mohd Shabbir, a member of the legislative council.
In the state assembly on Tuesday, the chief minister countered the opposition by saying that he had decided to shift the secretariat not just to be compliant with vaastu but also for better administrative coordination and functioning.
Suddala Sudhakar Teja, a vaastu expert handpicked by the Telangana chief minister last month to be the state's architecture adviser, will be paid a monthly salary of 75,000 rupees to ensure that all government buildings and plans are 'vaastu-compliant'.
He says the chief minister is doing nothing wrong in trying to ensure that everything works for him and his people. "Someone who works for the state and takes decisions, why shouldn't he use Vaasthu and create comfort? Vaasthu is nothing but ventilation and air. That is what makes miracles happen,'' said Mr Teja.
"Definitely this Secretariat has bad Vaastu. History is proof that no one has prospered because of this. Let Telangana not suffer,'' KCR had declared when he announced that a new secretariat would come up where the Government Chest Hospital is now located.
Deputy chief minister Mohd Mahmood Ali stoutly defends KCR saying, "When building anything, our CM consults all experts and that includes vaastu too. It does not mean that he will only follow vaastu. Or that if they say don't step out, he won't, like NTR used to do.''