Telangana deputy chief minister Mahmood Ali has kicked up a controversy with his remark that the historic ‘Charminar’ will be razed if it becomes dilapidated while defending his government’s decision to rebuild the 90-year-old Osmania General Hospital (OGH) here.
<g data-gr-id="29">Opposition</g> has been against the move to reconstruct OGH, saying they will not allow demolition of the heritage structure. “We will make 10-15 storey hospital...and it will be able to cater 10 times the number of patients it does now. It will have the same name (OGH) ... When a building becomes weak, if Charminar becomes weak, in 200 years, 400 years or 500 years, it will have to be razed too. If a building becomes weak, it can fall <g data-gr-id="26">any time</g> and claim many lives,” Ali said on Saturday.
Clarifying his remarks, the deputy chief minister on Sunday said that he only made a general reference to ‘Charminar’ to present his argument for rebuilding OGH which is in a dilapidated condition.
Charminar is a 16th-century monument located in old Hyderabad and a major landmark and tourist destination.
“Charminar is our ‘pehchan’ (identity). We will strive to strengthen it. I was speaking in a general sense that after 1,000 years (we have to think about it),” he said on Sunday, when asked about the controversy.