WARANGAL: The Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) on Wednesday demolished the camp office, built by TRS Wardhannapet MLA Aroori Ramesh on a stormwater drain, in Hanamkonda.
According to the GWMC’s City Planning authorities, the structure, located near a tyre retreading centre on Hunter Road, was blocking the drain and encroaching upon 300-400 square yard of valuable land.
“We had informed the MLA about this in the GWMC Councillors’ meeting and he immediately ordered a survey. On Tuesday, the engineering teams surveyed the camp office land and informed Urban District Collector Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanthu about the encroachment. In fact, the MLA agreed to the demolition,” said an official.
Speaking to Express, GWMC City Planning Officer M Narsimha Ramulu confirmed that Aroori Ramesh’s camp office had been demolished and that the department has issued notices to owners of a few other structures that are blocking the nalas. He said four teams are working on the demolition of illegal structures on stormwater drains in the city.
On the other hand, separate teams are surveying the flow of stormwater and sewerage in the nalas in order to plan their expansion. A report in this regard would be submitted to the special task force committee members, Ramulu said.
The GWMC’s engineering teams have already demolished 324 structures encroaching upon drains and 67 others. Waddepally, Bhadrakali, Bondivagu, Alankar, Naim Nagar, Hunter Road and Ranagampet drains, located right in the centre of the city, have been encroached upon. The move comes after Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister KT Rama Rao, during his visit to Warangal post the recent downpour, admitted that the floods were caused because of the illegal structures blocking the drains. He instructed the district administration and GWMC officials to take permanent steps to ensure that such a situation does not repeat.
Post Rama Rao’s visit, a special task force committee was constituted, with Warangal (Urban) Collector Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanthu as its chairman. The task force would remove all encroachments on the nalas and take stock of the demolition of illegal structures.