Cutting across political lines, various political parties on Monday took on chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for his decision to shift the chest hospital from Erragadda to Vikarabad and to shift the State Secretariat there.

While TDP leaders visited the chest hospital, YSR Congress cadre staged a protest there against the government’s decision to shift the hospital.

The city units of Left parties demanded that a general hospital be built on the  chest hospital premises at Erragadda instead of shifting the hospital to Vikarabad since the existing general hospitals in the city are not able to handle the ever-increasing number of patients.

Representatives of CPI, CPM, CPI- ML (New Democracy), All India Forward Bloc, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI)  discussed the government’s decision at a meeting held here on Monday.

Speaking to mediapersons later, CPI city president D Sudhakar faulted the government’s decision to shift the Secretariat in the name of Vaastu. “In a secular country, how can they divert state funds in the name of Vaastu?” he wondered.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao have spent Rs 175 crore  in the past 10 months to make changes as per Vaastu, Sudhakar said and announced that a delegation of Left leaders would visit the hospital premises on Wednesday.

M Srinivas Rao, CPM city secretariat member, said the government was doing real estate business by selling lands and government offices, and neglecting the problems people are facing at present.