HC to govt: relieve HYDRAA chief
Telangana High Court told the Chief Secretary to relieve HYDRAA Commissioner A.V. Ranganath and find a replacement, during contempt proceedings tied to a 40-acre Lothkunta land dispute. No government order relieving him was on record as of Tuesday.
The court direction was issued; an official relieving order was not on record as of Tuesday.
The Telangana High Court has directed the state’s Chief Secretary to relieve HYDRAA Commissioner A.V. Ranganath and appoint a replacement, during contempt proceedings over alleged interference with Shantha Sriram Constructions’ 40-acre property at Lothkunta. According to multiple reports from July 27–28, Justice Jukanti Anil Kumar issued the direction while hearing a batch of contempt petitions linked to earlier court orders in the same dispute.
The Indian Express reported the court referred to “as many as 63 contempt cases” involving the officer or the agency. That figure has not been independently verified from a court case list. Siasat quoted the court’s view that the HYDRAA chief “should be relieved of the post,” language we have not yet matched to the published order.
HYDRAA has publicly disputed the developer’s account, saying the company’s Survey Nos. 1 and 2 are distinct from government land it fenced in GLR Nos. 243 and 255 about three kilometres away, and that it acted on complaints of illegal blasting. Those are the agency’s claims. Earlier this month, the court weighed Army deployment to secure the site before deferring that after an assurance from the state’s Advocate General, Telangana Today reported.
Key unresolved fact: as of Tuesday, no official government order relieving Ranganath or appointing a successor was located. The court’s direction is clear; implementation is the part the Congress government now has to actually do.