HYDRA preying on GHMC babus for demolition works stings baldia boss

Hyderabad: Is there a cold war going on between the GHMC and HYDRA officials? The recent developments in the Corporation give strength to these speculations.

It is known that the vigilance staff of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation are working under the newly-formed unit of HYDRA. The officials of the Vigilance and Enforcement wing of the corporation conduct investigations on allegations of corruption, irregularities and staff members in various development programmes under GHMC. However, these personnel are now fully involved in the work of HYDRA.

GHMC Commissioner Amrapali Kata had written several letters to HYDRA Commissioner A V Ranganath asking him to relieve the Corporation staff and wanted them to return and perform the duties of the GHMC department. However, there was no reply from HYDRA. With this, in a recent standing committee meeting, the members brought this matter to the notice of the GHMC Commissioner.

The officials also told Amrapali that due to the non-activity of vigilance officers within the GHMC for the few days, there were difficulties in taking out many programmes. Taking a serious note of this, Amrapali ordered the officials who had worked in GHMC to return. The Commissioner also asked the administration department to stop the salaries of the staff if they were still negligent.

HYDRA has been cracking the whip on illegal constructions on the FTLs and buffer zones at the lakes and other water bodies. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had also taken the concept of HYDRA seriously. Besides this, recently, special police personnel have been assigned to HYDRA, which has led to increased impact of HYDRA. It has been reported that new house registrations have also decreased significantly from the past few days because of HYDRA effect as people were afraid of buying homes near FTLs and buffer zones.

The Vigilance department is responsible for conducting an internal inquiry into allegations of corruption, irregularities and officials in various development works related to GHMC and submitting a report to the Commissioner. The lack of response from the vigilance staff even after almost a month has become a topic of discussion which has led the Commissioner seeking stopping of salaries to the staff.