HYDRAA honours residents who fought for decades to clear encroached land

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA) has intensified its anti-encroachment drive across the city, clearing illegally occupied parkland in RK Puram Officers Colony and the old skating rink area inside Indira Park, while its Praja Vani grievance cell received 58 fresh complaints on Monday, March 30, related to encroachments on colony roads, drainage channels and open spaces.

HYDRAA Commissioner AV Ranganath, in an unusual turn at a felicitation event, chose to honour the very residents who had arrived to congratulate him, the members of RK Puram Officers Colony in Malkajgiri who had fought for over two decades to protect a 3,000-square-yard park from encroachers.

“You fought for decades. You saved the park. You stopped encroachers who tried to mislead every system with fake documents. Even after retirement, you demonstrated your fighting spirit. You are an inspiration,” Ranganath told the colony representatives, draping shawls over them. 

A three-decade battle

The dispute dates to 1968, when a 125-plot layout was formed in Ramakrishnapuram village, Malkajgiri mandal, with 3,000 square yards earmarked as a park. When HUDA failed to develop it after a 1997 municipal request, encroachers moved in, subdividing the parkland into four plots.

Residents resisted, triggering police cases and prolonged litigation. A District Court ruled in their favour in 2003, directing the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to develop the park. The High Court upheld this in 2007. Yet, concealing these court orders, the encroachers obtained Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) approvals from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) in 2008 and construction permissions from GHMC in 2011.

When construction began, residents intervened again. GHMC allocated Rs 19 lakh for park development in 2019, but encroachers moved the High Court, securing a stay. On February 10, 2025, colony residents filed a fresh complaint with HYDRAA’s Praja Vani. The High Court vacated the stay on November 18, 2025. Even then, encroachers held their ground.

On March 23, residents approached HYDRAA once more. Two days later, HYDRA teams moved in, removing encroachments, erecting fencing and installing boards marking the land as a designated park. HYDRAA also wrote to the GHMC to cancel the LRS and construction permissions, which the agency acted upon, subsequently writing to HMDA as well.

Retired general manager Ramesh Sishtla, part of the decades-long residents’ fight, called it a “surgical strike.” “In just hours, what we could not fully achieve in decades was done. HYDRAA provided oxygen to all of us,” he said.

Indira Park: Old skating rink encroachment checked

Ranganath personally inspected the old skating rink inside Indira Park at Lower Tank Bund on Monday, March 30, after walkers complained in Praja Vani about encroachment on the vacant site that was rendered idle after a new skating rink came into use.

A person identified as Safi had begun using the space as a paid karate training centre under the cover of a summer camp. He later sought MLA funds for construction, with the local MLA forwarding a Rs 30 lakh proposal to the District Collector. Without waiting for permissions, contractor Ravinder Reddy was assigned the work. The inner fence of Indira Park was demolished to allow construction machinery inside.

Following a HYDRAA field inspection, a case was registered at Domalaguda Police Station against Reddy. On Monday, Ranganath ordered the immediate stoppage of all construction, restoration of the fence and directed officials to merge the old skating rink site into the main Indira Park.

58 complaints at Praja Vani

The day’s Praja Vani session drew 58 complaints from across Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts, spanning colony road encroachments, blocked drainage channels and occupied open spaces.

Among the grievances was one from Anjanadri Nagar, a layout of approximately 15 acre and 800 plots in Kuntloor village, Pedda Amberpet mandal, where residents alleged that developers of an adjacent layout had encroached into their colony and swallowed up an internal road in the process. 

In Manneguda village, a 30-foot road had allegedly been encroached upon, with a sentry post for a transformer substation built directly on it, and the encroachers claiming the road fell within their LRS-regularised land.

Residents of Mahalaxmi Nagar Colony in Hayathnagar complained of recurring waterlogging after an adjacent commercial layout blocked a local drainage channel. Other complaints included the encroachment of a 1,200-square-yard park and a 40-foot road in TNGO Colony, Mailardevpalli, and the encroachment of a flood channel leading to Pattikunta in Budvel village, Rangareddy district.

Commissioner Ranganath reviewed all complaints and assigned resolution responsibility to the respective jurisdictional officials.