New act with tougher provisions against lake and nala encroachment in Hyderabad soon: KTR

HYDERABAD: The Telangana government will come up with a new Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Act early next year, which will have tougher laws incorporated against encroachment of lakes and nalas (storm water drains), said Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) K T Rama Rao on Monday.

Launching the Telangana State Building Permission Approval Self-certification System (TSbPASS) initiative, a path-breaking reform in building permissions here on Monday, the minister said the Telangana government already brought in new legislations like Municipal, Panchayati Raj and Revenue acts that have reformed the sectors.

He added that the state government will bring in the new GHMC Act either in January or February 2021.

The proposed GHMC Act will deal strictly with unauthorised encroachments that have come up on the full tank level (FTL) and buffer zones of lakes and nalas.

Illegal structures that have come up on nalas, buffer zones and FTL of water bodies would be demolished without giving any prior notice to the encroachers. The government will also take the opinion of legal experts before bringing in the new act.

The city and its surrounding ULBs had recently witnessed heavy rains leading to inundation of a large number of colonies and a primary reason behind this was encroachment of nalas and water bodies across the city, over the years.

Regarding the TSbPASS, he said that the state government will give instant building permissions through self-certification by the citizens in good faith that information provided by them is correct. Later on, if the information is found to be incorrect or false, then the government has the power to demolish buildings without any notice. This would be included in the new GHMC Act, he said.

''We hope all the citizens will follow in the footsteps of the government as confidently as it has given all of you the opportunity for self-certification'', the minister said and added that TSbPASS brought by the state government is going to stand as the best building permit process in the country.

The minister said that no other metropolitan city in the country has as bright a future as Hyderabad in the real estate sector and appealed to real estate firms and developers to maintain this positivity as the city offers houses at affordable prices. He appealed to people and the real estate community to make extensive use of the citizen friendly TSbPASS.

TSbPASS enables instant permissions for registration of buildings. It is also meant to avoid hassles to land owners and property builders. No permission is required for constructions in plot size up to 75 sq. yards and buildings in plot size up to 600 sq. yards are given instant approval. Residential and non-residential buildings of more than 600 sq. yards will be provided with single-window approval in 21 days under TSbPASS.