HYDERABAD: Over a dozen gram panchayats situated along the Outer Ring Road Growth Corridor on the city’s outskirts will witness developmental activities in their respective villages as the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority has released an amount of Rs 2.11 crore for the purpose.
For sanctioning plans for layouts along the ORRGC, HMDA has been collecting development deferment charges (DDC) on behalf of gram panchayats for the past two years.
Altogether, 102 gram panchayats are situated along the ORR Growth Corridor and hundreds of land-owners, builders and others from 19 gram panchayats have applied to HMDA for layout permissions in the last one year.
To release layout plans, the HMDA, apart from other fees and charges, levies development deferment charge from the applicants and has collected Rs 2,11,98,425 from over dozen gram panchayats.
As per Rule 17 of the ORRGC Master Plan, the development deferment charges should be levied by the local body i.e, gram panchayat, while releasing the sanctioned plans.
However, as the local bodies cannot release large layout plans, HMDA has been doing it on their behalf and collecting DDCs and releasing the money to the local bodies. HMDA officials said that with a view to discourage owners and developers, DDC is levied by the panchayat before HMDA releases the plans at prescribed rates.