Hyderabad: At a time when the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRA) has been going on a demolition drive to protect the city’s lakes, common people and activists have been supporting the officials by giving HYDRA officials evidence of various lake encroachments.
Startled by the speed at which the Telangana government has been moving, political leaders from the ruling and the opposition parties have been busy dispatching their advocates to the courts to secure a stay against the demolition of their properties for which they claim to have all proper documentation.
The latest to sit in the hot seat is former minister, four-time MLA and presently Congress MLC Patnam Mahender Reddy, who declared two days ago that if the HYDRA finds his farmhouse in Kothwalguda illegal, he will demolish it. He went a step ahead and claimed that bigger political personalities owned properties in that area which overlooks the Himayath Sagar reservoir.
The point of contention is whether his land, 13.03 acres, falls within the full tank level, buffer zone, or outside them. For the reference of HYDRAA, social activist Dr Lubna Sarwath submitted satellite imagery of the National Remote Sensing Center (NRSC) from 2012 to 2024, and also an extract of HMDA Master Plan 2031, which shows surprising facts and conflicting data.
In the satellite imagery, one can see that Reddy’s farmhouse lies within survey number 14 A. However, when one looks at the master plan, survey number 14 could be seen missing, and survey numbers 16 and 8 can be seen repeated twice in separate blocks.
As per the master plan, the entire area falls within the afforestation zone (buffer zone) of Himayath Sagar.
Another interesting aspect is that in the Dharani portal, the ‘nature of his land’ in survey number 14 has been marked as Patta land, but the ‘type of land’ has been shown as assigned land, which comes under the prohibited list, according to Dr Lubna.
However, Mahender Reddy claimed that he purchased the property registered in his son P Rineesh Reddy’s name in 1999, and got permission for constructing the farmhouse in 2005. His election affidavit in 2018 shows the land as not inherited.
Showing the 2012 satellite imagery, activist Lubna Sarwath claimed that the suspected “lake encroacher” had also laid a road which got swept away as the years passed. She also points out how a BT road was laid inside the FTL of the reservoir. She also points out how other structures were constructed inside the FTL and buffer zone.
“There are inflow channels in the buffer zone in survey numbers 32 and 18 which shows how close to the reservoir they have moved into. It is amply clear why the precious drinking water was being released from the reservoir in the flood years 2020, and 2021, and whenever there was the slightest rain in the catchment areas of Himayath Sagar and Osman Sagar. There was the least cognisance of drinking water needs or the flooding of people. Instead, the previous government was catering to the lavish criminal desires of the public representatives,” she observed.
MLC Mahender Reddy, who was in the BRS earlier is presently with Congress. Lubna too is a member of Congress, and claims to be part of the ”Team Climate Congress’. She had filed a petition seeking the removal of encroachments from Himayath Sagar and Osman Sagar drinking water reservoirs in 2022 before the National Green Tribunal in Chennai.
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