State government would initiate stringent measures against encroachment of nalas and tanks in Hyderabad: KTR

TRS working president and Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao on Thursday said the State government would initiate stringent measures against encroachment of nalas and tanks in Hyderabad. He said efforts were on to bring in the new GHMC Act in January or February with a provision for demolition of structures constructed on nalas without prior notice.

He said the State government was planning to come up with the Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP) on the lines of Strategic Road Development Programme (SRDP) to remove all encroachments on nalas and tanks soon.

Taking a dig at the Congress during the ‘Meet the Press’ programme organised by Press Club of Hyderabad here, Rama Rao said the Kirloskar Committee was constituted during the Congress regime. 

Though the committee identified over 28,000 encroachments over nalas and tanks which posed a flood threat to several colonies, the previous Congress governments did not take any action. “The current TRS government has been left to correct their mistakes after all these years. 

The encroachments of past have led to flooding of colonies during the



recent heavy rains,” he explained.

The TRS working president assured to resolve issues pertaining to thousands of properties entangled in land related problems in Hyderabad, after GHMC elections. He said the State government was committed to providing both the poor and the middle-class with dispute-free ownership of their respective properties. “Only the TRS government can resolve these issues,” he added. He pointed out that the government brought GO 58 to regularise the government lands encroached by the poor and provide them with pattas.

The Minister said the State government was implementing several welfare programmes for the urban poor. The government had been serving about 50,000 meals per day at just Rs 5 through Annapurna canteens, he said. 

“The State government is constructing one lakh double bedroom houses in Hyderabad involving an expenditure of Rs 9,714 crore. There is no bigger city in the country with a better or bigger slum development programme than Hyderabad. We would have inaugurated them earlier, if not for delay in works due to the Covid pandemic,” he said.