Hyderabad: Hyderabad Disaster Response Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRA) commissioner AV Ranganath on Monday, September 30, said that his agency has nothing to do with the impending demolitions of illegal structures on the Musi riverbed and buffer zones.
In a series of posts on X, Ranganath, on Monday, said, “HYDRAA has nothing to do with surveys on either side of the Musi River,” and that “HYDRAA is not evacuating the residents there.”
He stated that HYDRA was not undertaking any demolitions on the Musi banks, and that no markings have been made in the Musi catchment area by HYDRA authorities.
“The Musi rejuvenation and beautification is being done by the Musi Riverfront Development Corporation,” he stated. Stating that demolitions were not the goal of HYDRA, he asserted that HYDRA’s objective was the restoration of lakes.
“HYDRAA does not demolish the homes of the poor or middle-class people. The public should be aware and not believe false propaganda,” he urged, informing that HYDRA’s jurisdiction extended only up to the Outer-Ring Road (ORR).
“Not only in the city but across the state, and even in other states, demolitions are being attributed to HYDRAA on social media, causing unnecessary fear among people. Not all demolitions are conducted by HYDRAA. The public and social media should recognise this,” he stressed.
He stated that HYDRAA focused on protecting the natural resources, safeguarding lakes, ponds, and drainage channels, and taking measures to prevent roads and residential areas from flooding during the rains and floods. So the question arises as to who is responsible for demarcating the encroachments on the Musi riverbed and its buffer-zone.
According to a revenue development official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Musi Riverfront Development Corporation (MRDC) is solely responsible for demarcating the illegal structures, and that the revenue department’s role only comes in when issuing the allotment letters to the evictees, and even shifting them to their new houses wasn’t the domain of the revenue department, though the State government has been paying the evictees for shifting in many places.
Those who have been working on protecting lakes have a different take on this altogether.
According to activist and Congress member Dr Lubna Sarwath, who has spent the last decade saving lakes and water bodies in and around Hyderabad, demarcations is not something which is done by one person, and it involves the expertise of irrigation, revenue and hydrogeologists.
“Water bodies are dynamic sources, and a single department determine the carrying capacity of a river like Musi. It has to be the amalgamation of all these experts,” she notes. She also found fault with the High Court for summoning AV Ranganath for the demolitions in Ameenpur, as he just heads the agency executing the demolitions, who has been given directions from above.
“If the honourable High Court has to summon somebody, it either has to be the principal secretary of the municipal administration and urban development (if the demolition happens within GHMC’s limits), or the district collector, who is also the chairman of the Telangana Water, Land and Trees Authority, has absolute powers. In fact it is the collector who has extensive judicial powers as the district magistrate, to carry-out illegal evictions,” she told Siasat.com.
Meanwhile, former Congress leader Bakka Judson went around posting ‘RB-X’ posters on Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat on Monday, claiming that even that building was built in the buffer-zone of the Musi River.
He has also approached the national human rights commission (NHRC) last week, holding chief minister A Revanth Reddy responsible for violation of human rights, by conducting demolition of the houses of poor people in Sangareddy, Hyderabad, and Mahabubnagar.
He too is of the opinion that HYDRA is not responsible for the demolitions, as it is the municipal commissioner, revenue officials and the irrigation officials who are responsible for granting permissions to build a house in a lake or any other water body.
