A tweet by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief A. Revanth Reddy about an ‘illegal structure’ stirred up a hornet’s nest on Monday.
Mr. Revanth Reddy shared a video clip of the illegal structure allegedly coming up near the Uppal circle on his official Twitter handle, and accused a ‘Hyderabad Minister’ for promoting it. Several complaints to officials concerned have not yielded any result, he said, tagging the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T.Rama Rao in the tweet.
Also tagging the official Twitter handles of the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office and GHMC Commissioner, Mr.Revanth Reddy questioned the Minister if there would be action against the erring officials.
The video clip shared by him shows a huge cellar pit dug up for two levels of basement, complete with foundation work, indicating work in progress for a multi-storey building. Already, the reinforcement for the first cellar is half way in progress.
According to details further shared by Mr.Revanth Reddy with The Hindu, the structure is a multiplex-cum-shopping mall being developed on 5,200 square yards, by a limited liability partnership firm headquartered in Somajiguda.
Several attempts to reach out to the officials immediately responsible, including the GHMC Commissioner D.S.Lokesh Kumar and Town Planning officials did not yield any result.
However, local officials, under the condition of anonymity, said the company’s application for permission has already been processed, and the permission will have been issued in a couple of days. “They, in fact, have prior permission, but applied for a revised permission seeking relaxations in set back spaces. The revised permission, too, is ready for issue,” said an official.
Building permissions for multi-storey structures are processed at the GHMC headquarters, after discussing the applications in a committee set up for the same. Going by the present status, work was seemingly started and is under progress, without much scope for altering set back spaces.
Asked for his version, Special Chief Secretary of MA&UD Arvind Kumar said the issue was within the purview of GHMC. A report, nevertheless, has been sought, and till such time, officials have been asked to put the work on hold, he said.
