Curation Team
HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has been flooded with complaints on encroachments and illegal constructions.
Since Jan, citizens registered 955 complaints during Prajavani programme, with the town planning wing receiving 450 complaints among more than 15 different wings of the municipal corporation. This programme, held every Monday, has been seeing 40% to 50% of complaints on unauthorised structures.
In this regard, GHMC developed an online portal to track grievances from the initial stage of notice issuance, through speaking orders, property sealing, and demolition of structures, while documenting the specific actions undertaken against unauthorised constructions. Recently, GHMC terminated 27 engineers working on an outsourcing basis in town planning from service due to their involvement in corrupt practices and bad reputation.
GHMC officials said certain building owners often bypass rules by obtaining initial permissions for ground plus one or two floors, only to later add unauthorised levels. They violate norms by converting homes into commercial spaces while continuing to pay lower residential property taxes.
