Personal motives attributed to road fiasco in IAS/IPS layout

HYDERABAD: In a midnight drama, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority resumed the roadwork at IAS/IPS officers’ layout at Puppalaguda near Lanco Hills on Sunday.

Though a few officers, some of them retired, who are members of the society and accompanied by their legal counsel, objected to the roadwork showing the status quo order, HMDA officials asked the contractor to go ahead with the work.

Police were also deployed in large numbers. The midnight action comes in the wake of the society knocking the doors of the Telangana High Court through a lunch motion, which is likely to be taken up on Monday.

Reiterating that the society is not against the formation of the road, the board of directors of Adarsh Nagar MAC Housing Society have reportedly decided to meet Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari to present the case, besides re-initiating contempt proceedings against Arvind Kumar in Telangana High Court.

They urged Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and IT and MA&UD minister K.T. Rama Rao to resolve the dispute “arising out of ego” as the interests of at least 400 All India Services officers are involved. “As such, we are not against the formation of road,” one member said.

Meanwhile, the formation of a 100-feet road across the IAS/IPS officers’ layout near Lanco Hills has taken a curious turn, with members of the housing society attributing personal motives to Municipal Administration and Urban Development special CS Arvind Kumar, who is also HMDA commissioner, for pushing for the roadwork without following the due procedure.

“We tried, six times, in the last one year to meet the Special CS, but he always avoided us. Once, he went out from the other door while we are waiting to meet him and sometimes after waiting for nearly two hours, he denied audience,” a second member told Deccan Chronicle.

Referring to the HMDA Act, the society members urged the government to direct the HMDA to negotiate as per the provisions of the Act, fix the compensation and continue the work after obtaining consent from the society.

“We are asking HMDA to follow its Act. Nothing else,” a member pointed out.

Inquiries revealed that Arvind Kumar was not a member of the society at the time of allotment of membership due to technical reasons. However, a few years later, he again applied for membership. The society board referred his application to the state government, which is yet to react to his request.

Meanwhile, when the road work was taken up, the society filed a writ petition in the High Court and obtained status quo in all respects, until further orders. Sources said the society moved a contempt petition against MA&UD and HMDA, both headed by Arvind Kumar, when the status quo was violated.

“To get the contempt dropped, the HMDA informed the court that it stopped work after issuance of the status quo order,” one of the members cited above said, adding that the High Court also made it clear that the parties could work out their remedies.

The members argued that the status quo order has still been in vogue.

Deccan Chronicle posed a questionnaire to Arvind Kumar, asking whether due process was followed in laying the road and if HMDA’s action in the past two days violated the status quo order. However, there was no reply.

Another query, seeking to know whether he applied for membership to the society, also went unanswered.