HMDA Officer Accused of Irregularities by HYDRAA Gets Anticipatory Bail

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court granted anticipatory bail to Sudheer Kumar Madhavaram, assistant planning officer of HMDA, against whom the police registered the case on a complaint by HYDRAA, which accused him of granting permission for constructions in the buffer zone of Errakunta at Pragathinagar, in the Nizampet Municipal Corporation.

According to the complaint, Sudheer Kumar, without verifying whether the land belonged to the government or not, submitted verification reports, based on which permissions were granted.

He told the court that when an application for building permission is made, the same will be forwarded to two departments —land clearance and technical section. The former is headed by an MRO or tahsildar, who has to verify ownership of the land and submit a verification report to the technical section, which comprises an assistant planning officer (APO), planning officer and director.

The site inspection officer, that is the APO, will visit the site, with reference to the geo-coordinates provided by the applicant and will submit his verification report to the planning officer and the same will be forwarded to the director. The land clearance report along with the technical report will be forwarded to the commissioner, who will finally approve the building permission.

His argument was that as the APO he works in the technical section and only verifies the application. He submitted that he had made objections on the application, on which the case was booked. Considering it, the court granted anticipatory bail to him.