Hyderabad RWAs demand redrafting of CURE Bill, 2026

Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in Hyderabad opposed the CURE Draft Bill-2026, citing loss of local democracy, automatic tax hikes, and lack of ward committees. They demanded redrafting with full consultation, mandatory ward committees, transparency in civic actions, and an extended deadline for submissions.

Hyderabad: On the last date for submissions and suggestions on the Core Urban Region Economy (CURE) Draft Bill-2026 on Friday, the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) of the three civic bodies, GHMC, CMC and MMC, made several representations.

The RWAs raised certain objections including on centralisation of power, saying the apex council overriding civic bodies’ powers would kill local democracy and that the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Standing Committee were made powerless. The CURE Draft Bill does not mention ward committees and was silent on mandatory Ward Committees, which denied citizen participation at the ward level.

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Property owners felt that the automatic 5% annual hike in water and sewerage charges, along with CV-based property tax, would crush middle and lower middle-class families.

The RWAs placed a set of demands before the government ahead of shaping the draft bill into the final bill. These included withdrawing the CURE Bill and redrafting with full consultation of elected Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) representatives, making Ward Committees mandatory in every ward with financial powers, deleting clauses allowing the Government to suspend resolutions and dissolve the civic bodies, and ensuring all Corporations’ property, contracts and HYDRAA actions were in the public domain.

The RWAs demanded the state government extend the deadline by another 30 days to allow them to submit suggestions, objections and demands to strengthen the CURE Draft Bill in a full-fledged manner.