The Chief Minister of the Indian state of Telangana wants to demolish and rebuild a 19th century palace because he believes it is cursed.
The Saifabad Palace was built by the Sixth Nizam of the kingdom of Hyderbad in 1888. According to legend when he was on his way to inspect the new palace a monitor lizard crossed his path, which he considered a bad omen and as a result he never used the palace.
In the 1940s it was being used as an administrative office for the government of what is now the state of Telanganga and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. It has been added to over the years with some parts of the building created in the last decade.
Welcome to folly town
However the current Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao avoids the building at all costs and reportedly only attends a few times a month for cabinet meetings as he considers it unlucky.
He recently told the BBC the building had bad vaastu, which is a sort of Indian feng shui.
The Saifabad Palace. Source: V6 News
"Definitely this secretariat has bad vaastu. History is proof that no one has prospered because of this. Let Telangana not suffer," he said.
The plan to raze and rebuild the building because of the alleged bad luck will cost somewhere in the vicinity of 3.5 billion rupees ($68 million).
Shabbir Ali, leader of the opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council, told the BBC the plan was ridiculous and accused the Chief Minister of squandering public money.
"If a new chief minister comes in later and he thinks this vaastu does not suit him, will we waste the taxpayer's money again?" he said.
Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao. Source: Facebook
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