The Telangana Legislative Assembly on Thursday, December 20 amended the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2024 to give more powers to the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA). This amendment facilitates the state government to empower any officer or agency or authority like HYDRAA to exercise any of the powers of the GHMC and the GHMC commissioner to protect public assets like roads, drains, public streets, water bodies, open spaces, public parks etc and preserve them from any kind of illegal encroachments.
HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath clarified that HYDRAA will not demolish any structures for which permission was granted before July 2024.
“However, commercial and business buildings constructed without permits (e.g., N Convention) will be demolished, regardless of the construction date, if they fall within the Full Tank Level (FTL),” he clarified. After HYDRAA was given increased powers, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and AIMIM raised concerns over demolitions done by HYDRAA.
HYDRAA was introduced by Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on July 12, 2024. The organisation formed under the National Disaster Management Act, was set up to manage natural disasters and to protect government properties, curb encroachment of ponds and lakes and to get rid of illegal constructions and structures.
