HYDRAA entrusted with clear agenda much before GO Ms 99

There appears to have been a clear cut agenda behind the constitution of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), if the chronology of events since the appointment of senior IPS officer AV Ranganath as Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) Commissioner and the establishment of HYDRAA is considered.

Hyderabad: There appears to have been a clear cut agenda behind the constitution of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), if the chronology of events since the appointment of senior IPS officer AV Ranganath as Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management (EVDM) Commissioner and the establishment of HYDRAA is considered. And more striking is that, despite all the brouhaha over the agency’s powers, no order was issued appointing senior IPS officer AV Ranganath as the Commissioner, HYDRAA.

Consider this. Ranganath was transferred on June 24 and he took charge as the EVDM Commissioner on June 26. He did not waste time at all, swinging into demolition mode the very next day on June 27. The first structure cleared was encroachment of Lotus Pond park area, Film Nagar Cooperative Society by Gokul Narne. Three days later, On July 1, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy announced plans to constitute HYDRAA and decided to entrust more important responsibilities to the disaster management wing in GHMC limits. He also ordered officials to increase the scope of the disaster management wing, which was at that time tentatively called Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring Protection (HYDRA), upto Outer Ring Road (ORR).

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During the meeting, the Chief Minister also announced that a DIG rank officer would be appointed as the agency’s director and SP rank officers as Additional Directors. On July 12, the Chief Minister held a meeting with officials and directed them to finalise modalities for the agency before the Assembly session. He had already decided to introduce the agency as per the National Disaster Management Act but officials were asked to further study its establishment.

Apart from Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari and other senior officials, Ranganath also participated in the meeting. Soon after the meeting, on July 19, GO Ms 99 was issued about establishing a single, unified agency called the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) for disaster management in the Telangana Core Urban Region (TCUR).

Now, the contentious aspect here is that HYDRAA was established through a government order. But no official order was issued appointing Ranganath as HYDRAA Commissioner. It was all just oral announcements and statements that he would be helming the agency. Even as the official appointment orders were yet to be issued, HYDRAA began to crack its whip on demolitions, and is continuing to do so, indicating the clear ‘agenda’ behind the task.

Since July 21, HYDRAA has demolished a few structures, including film actor Nagarjuna’s N Convention centre, till last Saturday. There is also buzz that HYDRAA powers will soon be extended to cover GO Ms 111 limits.