Explaining the salient feature of the Core Urban Region (Integrated Governance) Bill, 2026, the Legislative Affairs Minister D. Sridhar Babu said the population of Hyderabad when Municipal Act was introduced in 1955 was 15 lakh and the population of CURE now is 1.30 lakh. In the seven decades, the city has expanded, population has increased, industrial activities and traffic has increased. 

Mr. Sridhar Babu said that there were no heritage buildings, Metro network, lakhs of vehicles, IT corridors, data centres, electric vehicles or online services when the Act in 1955 was implemented. Times have changed. The Hyderabad city then and now is different, he said. 

Provisions for floods and disaster prevention, conservation of water bodies are not mentioned in the old Act. 

Stating that we are all moving towards the digital age and smart cities, the Minister said the new generation wants digital and smart governance. 

He said that the bill was introduced to meet the needs of this and the future generations. 

Police take BJP leaders into custody as Telangana BJP State president N. Ramchander Rao is detained while protesting along with party leaders during the monsoon session of the Telangana Assembly in Hyderabad on Monday, September 7, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
Ramakrishna G.

On the first day of the Assembly’s monsoon session on Monday (September 7, 2026), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislators wore black t-shirts with slogans ‘Congress failed to deliver promises in 1,000 days’ and staged a protest at the Telangana Assembly Gate-3. 

They were stopped from entering the Assembly. They were taken away by police. Former Ministers and BRS women MLAs Sunitha Reddy and Sabitha Indra Reddy claimed that they were ill-treated by the police. 

The Saifabad Police Station, on Tuesday (September 8, 2026) registered a case against multiple BRS MLAs and MLCs, including Harish Rao, Sudheer Reddy, Kamalakar and Koushik Reddy over the incident. They were booked for allegedly violating Speaker’s dress-code order, abusing women police, removing shirts, pushing/manhandling cops and forcing entry.

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