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Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday, July 28, strongly defended HYDRAA Commissioner A V Ranganath and asserted that the state government would legally challenge the Telangana High Court's direction concerning his continuation in the post, maintaining that the appointment and posting of officers was the government's prerogative.
The Chief Minister's remarks came a day after the Telangana High Court directed the state government to relieve Ranganath as HYDRAA Commissioner. The court observed that an officer facing multiple contempt proceedings should not continue in the position until those cases were resolved, while hearing petitions related to HYDRAA's demolition drives and alleged violations of court orders.
Speaking to mediapersons in New Delhi, Revanth said the government respected the judiciary but would examine the detailed judgment and pursue legal remedies.
“We have complete faith in the judiciary. The government would carefully examine the court’s verdict before deciding its future course of action.” he said, according to The Times of India.
Coming out firmly in support of Ranganath, the Chief Minister argued that the existence of contempt petitions alone could not be grounds for removing an officer.
"If contempt of court cases are the criterion for transferring an officer, then former Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar had nearly 400 contempt cases against him. These rules were never discussed then," Revanth said.
He alleged that many of the contempt petitions had been filed by people who had encroached upon lakes, nalas, parks and government land and were attempting to mislead the courts by producing fabricated documents.
He alleged that the encroachers are trying to obstruct HYDRAA's work through litigation.
Describing HYDRAA as one of the Congress government's biggest reforms, Revanth said the anti-encroachment agency had played a crucial role in protecting lakes, ponds, stormwater drains, parks and other government land across Hyderabad.
Referring to Bathukammakunta, the Chief Minister alleged that BRS leaders had encroached upon the water body before HYDRAA restored it, and later filed contempt proceedings against the agency.
He also accused vested interests of running misinformation campaigns on social media to discredit HYDRAA and shield encroachers.
"The law will apply equally to everyone. Whether a person is influential or ordinary, action will be taken if public land has been encroached upon. Not an inch of government land will be allowed to be occupied," he said.
Separately, Revanth also hit back at the BJP over its criticism of pending fee reimbursement dues. Responding to BJP state president N Ramchander Rao's demand that he relinquish the Education portfolio over alleged dues of Rs 12,000 crore, the Chief Minister questioned why the BJP was not raising a similar issue in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where he claimed fee reimbursement arrears stood at around ₹10,000 crore despite the state being governed by an NDA alliance.
"Why don't BJP leaders raise the same demand in Andhra Pradesh? BJP MP R. Krishnaiah should ask those questions there as well," he said, according to Telangana Today.
