After Nagarjuna termed the demolition 'unlawful', HYDRAA issued an explanation, detailing the developments over the years.
Published Aug 24, 2024 | 8:21 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 24, 2024 | 8:45 PM
The Telangana High Court ordered a stay on the demolition but HYDRAA had by then razed actor Nagarjuna's N-Convention Centre.
The demolition of actor Akkineni Nagarjuna-owned N-Convention Centre at Madhapur in Hyderabad has all the ingredients that could make a Tollywood thriller, except for leaving the hero pained and hurt. In this story, however, the Telugu superstar comes off as the bad guy encroaching protected land.
The newly-formed Hyderabad Disaster Relief and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) moved in its bulldozers in a pre-dawn swoop on Saturday, 24 August, and razed the upmarket convention centre, allegedly constructed on the Tummidikunta lake’s Full-Tank Level (FTL) and buffer zone.
Nagarjuna rushed to the High Court for a restraining order, but the stay order came late.
HYDRAA has been on a demolition drive, levelling structures in FTLs and buffer zones, to prevent flooding of vast areas during rains. Chaired by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, HYDRAA has AV Ranganath, IPS, as its commissioner.
Incidentally, this was not the first time that the N-Convention Centre was caught in the government’s crosshairs. Revanth Reddy had raised the ‘encroachment’ in the Assembly when he was with the Telugu Desam Party in 2014-18.
The then irrigation minister T Harish Rao, in his reply, passed the responsibility onto the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, saying the matter did not come under his department’s jurisdiction.
Now, eight months after assuming power, the Congress government sent bulldozers to the N-Convention Centre.
HYDRAA has been identifying structures and other buildings that have come up in the FTL and buffer zones of innumerable lakes in Hyderabad, whose size shrank considerably over more than four decades.
Though the Telangana High Court stayed N-Convention’s demolition on Saturday afternoon, the authorities had by then razed it to the ground.
Nagarjuna took to X, saying he had not encroached on the lake’s area. “Pained by the unlawful manner of demolition carried out in respect of N Convention, contrary to existing stay orders and court cases,” he said.
Justifying the demolition, HYDRAA came out with an explanation. A media statement by HYDRAA’s commissioner asserted that the convention centre was illegal.
HYDRAA said that after following the due process, its officials, along with those from the irrigation, town planning, and revenue departments, had demolished the N-Convention on Saturday morning. It added that N-Convention was one of the several unauthorised structures that have been removed.
In 2014, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) issued a preliminary notification regarding Thammidikunta Lake’s FTL and buffer zones. In 2016, the HMDA issued the final notification.
After issuing the preliminary notification, the N-Convention management approached the high court which directed them to follow due process of law in determining FTL. Accordingly, the FTL survey was conducted in the presence of N-Convention and a survey report was communicated to them, the media release said.
N-Convention then approached the Miyapur Additional District Judge Court challenging the survey report in 2017. The case is still pending before the court.
Pained by the unlawful manner of demolition carried out in respect of N Convention, contrary to existing stay orders and Court cases.
I thought it fit to issue this statement to place on record certain facts for protecting my reputation and to indicate that we have not done any…— Nagarjuna Akkineni (@iamnagarjuna) August 24, 2024
There were no stay orders restraining demolition from any court till Saturday afternoon when the Telangana High Court gave interim orders to stay the demolition process but by then the structure had been razed, HYDRAA said.
“N-Convention has been manipulating the systems and processes and continuing its commercial activity through the unauthorised structures built in the FTL and buffer zones. It has encroached one acre and 12 guntas in FTL and two acres 18 guntas in the buffer zone and raised the unauthorised convention Centre. The GHMC had not given any building permission to N Convention,” it further said.
N-Convention had tried to regularise the unauthorised structures under the Building Regularisation Scheme but was rejected by the authorities concerned.
Due to the unchecked encroachments in and around Tummidkikunta Lake, and the connecting drains, the area around Madhapur has been facing serious waterlogging problems.
“The lower reaches of Thummudikunta Lake are being inundated during heavy rains regularly as the lake’s capacity to hold water has shrunk by more than 50 to 60 percent. Many houses of lower- and middle-class people are getting submerged in these lower reaches resulting in severe loss of property to them,” HYDRAA said.
On Saturday, the N-Convention management submitted that the high court had stayed proceedings of demolition in the past. As the court stay order was in force, the present government, giving a go-by to the order, demolished the building. The petitioner said no notices were issued before the convention centre was demolished.
The management said that actor Akkineni Nagarjuna had purchased the land with his own money in accordance with the survey reports in force and built the convention centre. The construction was completed in 2010-12.
But the then government issued a notice to N-Convention, saying it was constructed on an encroached lake area. The petitioner said the N-Convention had moved the high court and offered to make changes to the building if the government proved its claims. The stay order was issued after this submission.
(Edited by Majnu Babu)
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