Telangana cabinet nod for legal cover & more teeth to HYDRAA

HYDERABAD: The state cabinet meeting chaired by CM A Revanth Reddy on Friday approved giving legal status to Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) while also arming it with all powers already vested with municipalities, municipal corporations, panchayat raj and other departments to allow it to go after encroachments on lakes, ponds, reservoirs and other water bodies.
The other major decisions taken by the cabinet included providing Rs 500 bonus to farmers in addition to MSP on each quintal of fine variety rice from the current Kharif season once the procurement begins in Nov and supplying fine rice to ration card holders from Jan 2025.


The Rs 500 bonus was one of the poll promises of the Congress. The cabinet approved Rs 2,500 crore additional funds to the civil supplies department towards payment of the bonus alone.
Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy briefed the media about the decisions taken in the three-hour cabinet meeting at the secretariat.
Cabinet nod for SLBC works revised estimates of Rs 4.6k cr
Ministers N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said the cabinet approved a revised estimate of Rs 4,637 crore for completing Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel work within 24 months, which would provide water to nearly 4 lakh acres in the fluoride-hit Nalgonda district and drinking water to numerous villages.
Revenue minister Ponguleti said HYDRAA will now have all the powers to issue notices, evict and demolish illegal structures in full tank level (FTL) and buffer zones of water bodies within the limits of the Outer Ring Road.
"There are 27 urban local bodies and 51 gram panchayats in the core urban area. As many as 169 officials and 946 employees on an outsourcing basis from various departments will be deputed to work in HYDRAA," he said.
Irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said they were expecting a bumper crop of 1.43 lakh metric tonnes from the current Kharif season. Of the total, about 80 lakh metric tonnes will be fine rice and 50 lakh metric tonnes coarse rice variety.
"New ration cards issuance will begin from Oct. All the old and new ration card holders will be given fine rice and not coarse rice through ration shops from next year," he said.
"See the difference in work of the present Congress govt and the previous BRS govt. The previous govt spent Rs 1 lakh crore on Kaleshwaram irrigation project but could not irrigate even one lakh acres. The present govt will spend a little over Rs 4,600 crore and give water to 4 lakh acres through the SLBC tunnel project. Water will flow through gravity from even dead storage level of Srisailam and there will hardly be any recurring costs. Even the Dindi balancing reservoir work will be completed by appointing a special officer to get environmental and other clearances," he said.
Roads and buildings minister Venkat Reddy said former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had lied to the people and also mocked him in the assembly in the past on the fluoride water problem and the SLBC tunnel project.