HYDRAA commissioner AV Ranganath denied that his agency was demolishing buildings with valid clearance certificates.
Published Sep 28, 2024 | 8:30 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 28, 2024 | 9:44 PM
HYDRAA officials inspecting a nallah in Tirumalagiri. (X)
The Telangana government on Saturday, 28 September, asserted that no one will be forcibly vacated as part of implementing the Musi Riverfront Development project.
The government’s statement came after several residents in the proposed site protested the move to evacuate them, after demolishing their homes and businesses.
Municipal Administration and Urban Development Principal Secretary Dana Kishore said the government was counselling and persuading those living on Musi river banks to move out.
“A majority of them are happy to relocate since the double bedroom apartments offered to them are worth ₹25 lakh. No one would like to live in a squalor forever,” he told reporters. He was accompanied by Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA) commissioner AV Ranganath.
The officials did not indicate the slowing down of rehabilitating Musi dwellers or those who had constructed houses on the full-tank level and buffer zones of lakes and nullahs in Hyderabad, despite a rising tide of public opinion against demolitions.
Elaborating on the rehabilitation plan for those living on the Musi riverbank, Kishore said that 90 percent of the dwellers were ready to move to the double-bedroom houses. He said those who had pattas for the land on which they had built houses were awarded double the market price.
Kishore said the government was committed to restoring the glory of the Musi River with the planned development project.
“By June 2026, we want to ensure that only clean water will flow in the river. The plans to clean the river are being carried out by investing up to ₹3,800 crore. There will be east and west corridors on either side of the Musi Riverfront. The modernisation of the now-stinking river would become a nerve centre for economic activity once the project is implemented,” Kishore said.
Meanwhile, Ranganath vehemently denied that HYDRAA was demolishing buildings which had valid clearances. “This is not true. We are honouring all clearances given by local bodies, whether it was GHMC or HMDA. We have only pulled down buildings for which clearances issued in the past were revoked subsequently.”
He said that the HYDRAA was not touching any houses which are occupied or genuine educational institutions.
Ranganath, however, said that all structures without valid clearances and those which had come up in lake areas and are unoccupied are being pulled down.
The HYDRAA commissioner also said that it was the fundamental right of the citizens to have access to a clean environment. “We are working towards this end. Right to live is a fundamental right but it should not infringe on the fundamental of others who have a right to a clean environment,” he said, justifying the razing of houses which had no clearances.
“We know how much all of us suffer when there is a heavy downpour in Hyderabad. One does not have the right to cause inconvenience to others by obstructing the free flow of water,” the HYDRAA commissioner said.
He said HYDRAA was not exceeding its jurisdiction and or its powers. “HYDRAA has been mandated to protect the government properties. The water resources are also government property and we have to protect them,” he said and added that despite warnings, some builders were going ahead with illegal constructions with the support of some influential persons.
“We are not sparing such people,” he, said recalling how in Ameenpur a building, though it was pulled down in the past because it was an illegal construction, has been rebuilt. “We had to raze the building,” he said.
The HYDRAA commissioner said in Ameenpur, thousands of acres had been encroached on which illegal buildings had come up.
“Though we have cancelled the permissions issued in the past, villas had come up. We had to pull them down,” he said, adding that the builders are being prosecuted.
The HYDRAA has also pulled down a building which was made to look like a hospital but in reality, it was not. There were no patients in the building when HYDRAA razed it. He said the HYDRAA did not touch the abodes of the poor near the N Convention building, which was demolished.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
