Hyderabad:
The Revanth Reddy government’s flagship lake protection agency, HYDRAA, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. While the agency headed by IPS officer AV Ranganath stepped up its drive against alleged encroachments around water bodies and has reclaimed approximately 2,435 acres of encroached and illegally occupied land across the Hyderabad metropolitan region, its recent action around the city’s Hussain Sagar lake has now become the centre of a political row.
A joint team of HYDRAA, the Revenue Department and the Irrigation Department inspected the 17-storey project developed by Pradeep Constructions on Raj Bhavan Road in Somajiguda. Officials said records show the entire 7,640.89-square-metre site falls within the Full Tank Level (FTL) and mandatory buffer zone of Hussain Sagar, leaving no area fit for construction.
HYDRAA has issued a public advisory warning buyers against purchasing flats in the project. The agency said the land is listed in survey records as “vacant land, tank submerged” and that no no-objection certificate was issued by the district administration. Court cases related to the property are also pending.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has served a show-cause notice proposing cancellation of the building permission, alleging that approvals were obtained through misrepresentation and suppression of facts. Officials said no Occupancy Certificate has been issued and that further action will depend on the outcome of the inquiry and court proceedings.
The Telangana Real Estate Regulatory Authority has also cautioned the public that the project’s RERA registration has lapsed and is no longer valid.
The action has triggered a political storm, with opposition parties accusing the Congress government of selective targeting. However, HYDRAA officials maintain that their decisions are guided solely by FTL surveys and official land records.
Amid reports attempting to link the project to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi leadership, BRS working president and MLA K.T. Rama Rao issued a legal notice to the newspaper that carried the allegation. He denied any connection with the project, its developer or the permissions granted for it, and demanded the removal of the report along with a public apology, warning of legal action if his demands are not met.
With HYDRAA intensifying its campaign to protect lakes and remove encroachments, the Hussain Sagar case is set to remain under close public and political scrutiny as BRS has questioned housing farmhouses and construction done around lake bodies by Chief Minister’s family, several senior ministers and other top Congress leaders and questioned selective targeting.
