Hyderabad: In a significant move, the state Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, on Friday, granted legal sanctity to the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA).
The Cabinet, meeting for over three hours at the Secretariat, focused extensively on providing HYDRAA with statutory powers to clear encroachments besides undertaking disaster management operations across the Telangana Core Urban Region (TCUR).
The state government will issue an ordinance to formalize HYDRAA's powers, which will be comparable to those of municipalities, revenue and irrigation departments.
HYDRAA, once vested with legal authority, will serve as the sole unified agency responsible for clearing encroachments and disaster management within the TCUR, an area encompassing the GHMC region, along with parts of Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri, and Sangareddy districts that fall within the Outer Ring Road (ORR).
This area includes 26 urban local bodies, comprising municipalities, municipal corporations, and 51 newly merged gram panchayats.
The newly empowered HYDRAA will have the authority to address issues related to encroachments in buffer zones, full tank levels (FTLs) of lakes, tanks, and nalas.
Revenue and information and public relations minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, briefing the media, said that the Cabinet had taken a series of important decisions to enhance HYDRAA's effectiveness. The government would allot 150 officials, along with 946 outsourced employees, to the authority to ensure its smooth functioning.
Srinivas Reddy said, “We have given HYDRAA the necessary statutory powers to remove illegal structures from FTLs and buffer zones. This will pave the way for better urban management and flood mitigation."
Another key decision taken by the Cabinet was the formation of a 12-member committee tasked with finalising the alignment of the southern part of the Hyderabad Regional Ring Road (RRR). The committee, chaired by the special chief secretary of the roads and buildings (R&B) department, will include collectors from the five districts through which the RRR will pass.
The RRR project, aimed at decongesting the city's traffic and supporting its future growth, has been a crucial priority for the state government.
The Cabinet also approved the renaming of key institutions: the Women’s University in Koti after Chakali Ailamma, the Telugu University after Suravaram Pratap Reddy, and the Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (IIHT) after Konda Laxman Bapuji.
Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy announced the Cabinet’s approval of revised estimates of ₹4,637 crores for completing the long-pending Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel. He stated that the project, expected to be completed by September 2027, would be a game-changer for the region.
“The SLBC tunnel will make history by enabling us to access Krishna water from the dead storage of the Srisailam project. This will irrigate over 4 lakh acres in Nalgonda district and resolve the long-standing fluoride problem," said Uttam Kumar Reddy.
He also highlighted the project's cost-effectiveness, contrasting it with the Kaleshwaram project constructed by previous BRS government which, despite spending `1 lakh crore, has failed to irrigate even one lakh acres.
Uttam Kumar Reddy revealed that efforts would be made to complete 400 metres of tunnel work each month, expediting the project’s completion. The Cabinet also approved the completion of pending works on the Dindi Balancing Reservoir, further bolstering the state’s irrigation infrastructure.
In a move to support agricultural growth, the Cabinet extended a bonus of ₹500 per quintal to farmers cultivating “sanna biyyam” (fine quality rice) from the current kharif season fulfilling yet another promise made by Congress during the Assembly elections.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that starting January 2025, fine quality rice would be distributed to all ration cardholders in the state as a New Year gift.
Roads and buildings minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy accused former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao of deliberately neglecting the project.
"Whenever I raised the issue of SLBC in the Legislative Assembly, KCR responded sarcastically and showed no intention of completing the project," Venkat Reddy said. “KCR obstructed work on the SLBC due to concerns that its completion would benefit me and the Congress politically,” Venkat Reddy said.
He stressed the significance of SLBC, stating it would irrigate crops in two seasons annually and would help make Nalgonda district completely free from fluoride contamination.
Cabinet decisions:
1. Multi-modal logistics park at Manoharabad mandal in 72 acres
2. Industrial park in Yerrupalem mandal in 58 acres.
3. 34 posts okayed for fire service station in Eturunagaram in Mulug district.
4. Sanction for 3,000-plus teaching, non-teaching posts in eight new medical colleges.
5. Sanction of Government engineering college in Kosgi and junior college in Hakimpet.
