What happened
On July 27, the Telangana High Court directed the Chief Secretary to relieve IPS officer A V Ranganath as commissioner of the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency, better known as HYDRAA. The agency was set up by the Revanth Reddy government to protect lakes and government land from encroachment, but the court noted that Ranganath was facing 63 contempt cases and had repeatedly failed to comply with judicial directions. In the Lothkunta land dispute, a private company alleged HYDRAA entered a 40-acre property despite restraint orders, while the court earlier called the agency's conduct unprecedented and told it not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority. Ranganath says the contempt cases come from land grabbers whose interests HYDRAA disrupted, which leaves Telangana with a very Indian governance problem: the anti-encroachment agency is now in a turf war with the court about boundaries.