The HYDRAA is now focusing on ensuring the free flow of flood waters in nalas. As encroachment of nalas has led to frequent flooding of various localities in Hyderabad, the HYDRAA wants to address this on a priority basis, while continuing the survey of the building that had come up in FTL and buffer zones in lake areas.
Published Sep 08, 2024 | 5:00 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 09, 2024 | 3:25 PM
HYDRAA officials inspecting a nallah in Tirumalagiri. (X)
The recent rains and the concomitant destruction in parts of Telangana seem to have reinforced Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s resolve to use the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) to clear obstructions in lakes or nalas to insulate the entire state from the ravages of floods.
The chief minister has decided to expand the scope of HYDRAA to the entire Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) area, to begin with.
He wants to protect it from any challenge to its existence by according it a statutory status. Initially, the government had thought a Government Order (GO) would do but with increasing litigation in courts, it has decided to bring forth an Act to legitimise HYDRAA’s actions.
As the chief minister had announced earlier, the government officials are preparing to set up a police station exclusively for HYDRAA which will be used in enforcement work as well as prosecuting those who had given clearances for the illegal buildings. The HYDRAA’s jurisdiction is also likely to extend to the entire HMDA.
The recently created institution came under the spotlight after the HYDRAA pulled down actor Nagarjuna’s high end N Convention Centre.
Subsequently, the officials issued notices to Revanth Reddy’s brother Tirupati Reddy to demolish his house since it had come up in the Durgam Cheruvu area.
Tirupati Reddy said that if the house had violated any Act, the officials were free to take whatever action they deem fit.
However, the Opposition BRS, however, says the entire exercise of demolitions is nothing but Revanth Reddy’s stunt to project himself as a hero out to save the city from floods.
The BRS leaders keep saying that the chief minister has no guts to pull down the swanky houses of the Congress leaders close to the major lakes in Hyderabad but shows unusual haste to demolish the houses of the poor, the lower middle class and the middle class in the name of protection of nature and ecological balance.
The BJP leaders speak in conflicting voices. While Medak MP M Raghunandan Rao welcomed the initiative, another MP from the neighbouring constituency of Malkajgiri, Eatala Rejender hit out on Revanth Reddy for using the HYDRAA against the poor.
He ridiculed Revanth Reddy for making a “show” that only after he took over as the chief minister that sincere effort was going on to uphold dharma and it was as though there were no traces of righteousness under earlier regimes.
He was speaking in support of people like those whose houses were razed in Rayadurgam. They said they lost their houses though they had built them on patta land and that for generations they had been living there, paying taxes. They said no notices were given to them that their houses would be demolished.
There were similar complaints in Mahabubnagar when the authorities razed houses that had come up on government land including those who were physically challenged. They said they built houses on patta land by raising loans and no they are left high and dry.
There has, however, been support from the people, mainly from the environmentalists to Revanth Reddy for showing courage in going after the rich and the influential and also risking possible political backlash that he may have from those who have lost their abodes.
But so far, Revanth Reddy has not shown any signs of developing cold feet and instead appears to have doubled down on continuing the mission.
It is a fact that the HYDRAA is causing pain to the poor and middle class but, some leaders in Congress said, pain is inevitable when an initiative is for the greater good of society.
However, rendering people who had built houses close to the lakes homeless looks very inhuman. Even though there have been demands that the government should work out a scheme to compensate the poor and the middle class, so far there are no indications that the government is working on these lines.
As far as HYDRAA is concerned, its commissioner, an IPS officer, is going ahead and pulling down the structures that have come up in Full Tank Level (FTL) and buffer zones of lakes and nalas.
It has been given a carte-blanche. Even the Telangana High Court did not say HYDRAA should not demolish the buildings but said it should follow the established procedure, thoroughly verify the claims of the property owners, and whether the clearances given were against rules and if so, evolve a plan to take action against them.
After learning about the large-scale destruction, suffering and death in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh following rains, some sections in the sibling state have raised the demand for the creation of similar institutions to deal firmly with encroachments, regardless of the political cost that the parties in power would have to pay.
Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, while welcoming the HYDRAA initiative, however, emphasised more preventive steps, at least from now on, since the state is also as badly affected as Telangana in the recent rains.
He said it was necessary to look at finding answers to the problems being created by the present illegal constructions.
Kalyan said if action was taken similar to how HYDRAA is doing in Telangana, it would lead to societal tensions.
He said the havoc that the floods had caused in Vijayawada was unprecedented. Whatever action that the government contemplates, it should have a human face as it would be dealing with the poor and the middle class also.
Telangana too faced destruction on a massive scale. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy submitted to the Union Agriculture and Rural Development Minister that the state had suffered a loss of ₹5,438 crore and that the state was seeking the Union government’s help. Earlier, Chauhan visited the flood-affected areas and took a close look at the extent of damage.
After watching the havoc that the floods had wreaked in Mahabubabad, Revanth Reddy said that all illegal structures in lake areas would be demolitions across the state though he did not say if it woud be done by HYDRAA or the local civic body.
Meanwhile, the collectors are already in overdrive. In Peddapalli, collector K Sriharsha has ordered a survey of lakes in the district. He visited Bompally Lake in Peddapalli mandal and ordered the removal of encroachments in the lake’s FTL area. He also ordered the demolition of the wall constructed close to Rangampally by realtors.
The HYDRAA is now focusing on ensuring the free flow of flood waters in nalas. As encroachment of nalas has led to frequent flooding of various localities in Hyderabad, the HYDRAA wants to address this on a priority basis, while continuing the survey of the building that had come up in FTL and buffer zones in lake areas.
The officers are understood to be focusing on the areas that are vulnerable to flood because of encroachments on nalas.
In the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area, there are nalas for a distance of about 370 km and stormwater drains for a distance of 1250 km.
The officials to the extent possible do not want to touch houses but remove other structures that have come up on nalas. In a survey that GHMC had conducted in the past, there are about 12,000 encroachments in nalas of which 35 percent are non-residential.
At several places, the nalas had shrunk so much that any downpour would lead to an overflow inundating nearby areas.
At a recent meeting of the realtors, HYDRAA commissioner AV Ranganath said his officials were pulling down non-residential buildings that have come up in the FTL of the lake areas and not houses.
He said it was not as though he wanted to pull down all buildings that have come up in FTL. He said patta lands in FTL could be used only for agriculture purposes and constructions are not allowed.
The courts had said several times in the past that for pulling down structures in the FTL, there was no need to issue any notices to their owners.
The HYDRAA is also preparing to file criminal cases against the officials who have given clearances for the buildings in the FTL and buffer zones of the lakes.
Already, the government has identified six such officials and is preparing to proceed against them. It also has a list of encroachments in GHMC and HMDA areas and the officials who issued permissions for them. It is an open question how long this momentum would continue.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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