Telangana | Will Hydraa lose its head?
A crack anti-encroachment unit gets a rap from the court, but Revanth backs his 'demolition man'
A feat comparable to the annexation of princely states into the Indian Union? That’s the grandiose picture commissioner A.V. Ranganath likes to draw. What occasions this claim? The agency that runs under his watch, Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (Hydraa), says it has reclaimed 3,325 acres of government land and natural resources like lakes from encroachers in the Telangana capital area in the two years since its formation. Together, that vast acreage is said to be the worth a whopping Rs 1.5 lakh crore. In a booming city, where state auctions are fetching upwards of Rs 200 crore an acre in prime localities, the figure seems credible. Yet, what Hydraa has earned from the courts is a baleful moniker: “a law unto itself.”