THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite struggling to intervene in the market during Onam due to lack of funds, the Kerala government has sanctioned crores to develop secretariat 2nd Annex. Rs 19.21 crore has been sanctioned for acquisition of 36.62 cents of land near the annex. This was informed through the Thiruvananthapuram District Collector's Facebook page.

At a time when the state is facing a severe financial crisis, the development of annex as been criticized and ridiculed.

It will cost crores to build a multi-storied building on the acquired land. But Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's proposal is to complete the building development within the remaining two and a half years of the government. It is known that the construction will be given to Uralungal Society.

There is also a move to skip the tender and award the contract to Uralungal. There are also plans to shift the offices of a few ministers and IAS officers in the Secretariat main block to the second annex. With this, the offices of most of the ministers will be there. The parking facility in the annex will also be improved.

The revenue officials informed that the private land in the middle of the first and second annexes is being acquired. According to the collector's Facebook note, there were three cases related to land acquisition in different courts.