Hyderabad: The ordinance to give statutory powers to Hyderabad Disaster Response Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRA), to strengthen the hands of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), has received Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma’s nod on September 30.
A gazette notification was issued for the same on Thursday by R Thirupathi, secretary to government, legal affairs, legislative affairs and justice, law department.
The ordinance which is now known as the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2024, includes Section 374 (B) in the GHMC Act, 1955, giving powers to the State government to empower any officer, agency or authority to exercise any of the powers of GHMC and GHMC commissioner, to protect the assets of the corporation and the government.
“To protect assets like roads, drains, public streets, water bodies, open spaces, public parks, etc., and to preserve them from any kind of illegal encroachments, in the manner prescribed by the Government as it deems fit from time to time, for the purpose of Disaster Response and Protection of public assets,” the ordinance reads.
HYDRA was formed by the Telangana government by the issue of GO 99 on July 19, under the municipal administration and urban development (MA&UD) department headed by principal secretary Dana Kishore. GHMC’s commissioner of enforcement vigilance and disaster management (EV&DM), AV Ranganath, was made the commissioner of HYDRA.
HYDRA’s mandate included reclaiming illegally occupied government lands, protecting Hyderabad’s water bodies, and serving as a safeguard against urban disasters in Hyderabad’s core urban region, which falls within the limits of the Outer-Ring Road (ORR).
Certain individuals and political parties approached the courts questioning the legality of the establishment of HYDRA.
With the Telangana government moving at a brisk pace to remove encroachments on the Musi riverbed, HYDRA has been facing stiff resistance from common and influential persons who have built their structures in the full-tank level (FTL) and buffer zones of the city’s lakes and other water bodies.
It is at this juncture, when the High Court has already questioned the legality of the agency, the State government had brought this ordinance to give special powers to HYDRA. A comprehensive legislation would be introduced in the coming winter session of the Telangana Legislative Assembly, that would be held after Dasara.
