HYDRAA felicitates residents of RK Puram Officers’ Colony for saving park area

Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) commissioner A.V. Ranganath felicitated the residents of RK Puram Officers’ Colony for their persistent efforts in reclaiming a 3,000-square-yard park from encroachment.

Praising them for their decades-long struggle, he called them role models for protecting public spaces and inspiring civic responsibility.

The park land, originally designated in a 1968 layout, had been illegally occupied over the years by encroachers who created four plots in it using fraudulent documents. Despite favourable judgments by District Court in 2003 and the High Court in 2007 directing that the land be maintained as a park, the issue remained unresolved due to permissions the encroachers later obtained under the Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS).

However, residents continued their legal battle and approached authorities multiple times. In 2025, they sought intervention through the HYDRAA Prajavani programme. After the Telangana High Court lifted a stay order last November, the officials acted swiftly.

HYDRAA also wrote to the GHMC, to take measures to cancel the building permissions and the LRS approvals associated with the site. The GHMC revoked its own permissions and further issued a letter to the HMDA regarding the matter.

On March 25, HYDRAA cleared the encroachments, fenced the area and installed signboards redesignating it as park land.