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The Hindu
The Hindu
National
The Hindu Bureau

Telangana Chief Minister hauls up HMDA, GHMC officials on missing files

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has expressed severe displeasure about several irregularities pertaining to city planning and administration, during a review meeting on Friday.

Higher officials from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board, and Municipal Administration and Urban Development department attended the meeting which continued late into the night.

The Chief Minister questioned disappearance of files pertaining to offline building permissions, and gave directions to prepare the list of such permissions, an official statement informed. He sought the list of valuable government lands in the State capital too.

He warned that Vigilance raids will be conducted on HMDA and GHMC offices in the coming fortnight, after which action will be taken against the errant officials who went against the rules and acted without accountability.

He also expressed annoyance about inaction of the GHMC zonal commissioners, and asked them to take up colony tours every day to identify civic problems.

Mr. Reddy questioned about disappearance of lakes data from the HMDA website, and ordered for the details of all 3,500 lakes within HMDA to be kept online. CCTV cameras should be installed at all lakes with immediate effect to prevent encroachment.

Reviewing the water supply situation, the Chief Minister advised use of the local lakes as storage tanks for drinking water. He asked officials to prepare plans for supply of drinking water from Mallannasagar, Kondapochammasagar, and Ranganayaksagar reservoirs. Instructions were given for the lakes falling outside the Outer Ring Road to be divided into clusters and detailed plans to be prepared for addressing drinking water needs for the coming 50 years.

Astonished at learning that 85 of the newly-formed municipalities did not have commissioners, Revanth Reddy issued directions for appointment of Group I officers as commissioners. Newly-constituted municipal corporations should have IAS officers as the commissioners, he instructed.

Directions were issued for provision of accident insurance for municipal workers, and employment for the next of kin of the aged workers in GHMC. He also gave directions to explore the use of drone cameras for property tax assessment in the city, and suggested multi-level parking in private sector to address the chronic issue of lack of parking facilities in city.

The Chief Minister issued instructions for installation of video display boards for advertisements in the style of New York Times Square, and erection of multi-utility towers.

He asked officials to schedule inaugurations of public utilities, if any, in the coming week, and said foundation will be laid soon for the newly announced Metro Rail routes. Minister for Revenue Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Principal Secretary, MA & UD, M. Dana Kishore and HMDA Joint Commissioner K. Amrapali were present in the meeting.

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