Telangana Assembly Approves Law to Give More Powers to HYDRAA

Hyderabad: The Legislative Assembly on Thursday approved three Bills on Thursday, namely Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024, Telangana Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

The GHMC Act was amended to give more powers to 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.

However, opposition BRS, BJP and AIMIM MLAs raised concerns over demolitions done by HYDRAA. They said HYDRAA has created a sense of panic among people with its hasty demolitions. Few MLAs said there was no need for setting up HYDRAA and urged the government to rethink giving more powers to HYDRAA by amending the GHMC Act.

The Panchayat Raj Act and the Telangana Municipalities Act were amended to merge 51 gram panchayats in nearby municipalities located on the outskirts of Hyderabad within Outer Ring Road (ORR)/ overlapping ORR and outside of ORR of Rangaredddy of Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Sangareddy districts. These villages were merged to develop "Master Plan 2050" for Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Area up to Regional Ring Road (RRR) to unleash the growth potential of Telangana Core Urban Region (TCUR), which corresponds to area within ORR. Further, it is proposed to establish a common urban governance structure for this area.