Hyderabad: Telangana Musi Riverfront Development Corporation MD M Dana Kishore has made it clear that nobody will be forcefully evicted, or will be manhandled while being shifted to 2BHK houses from buffer zones and bed of the Musi River. He said that only after shifting them to their new houses, their old houses will be demolished.
Addressing media at his office in Masab Tank on Saturday, he said that drone survey of the 55-km stretch of the Musi River had revealed that 10,200 structures (houses) were built on the river bed and in the buffer zone.
“I’m not saying that the people have encroached or something else, but it is a fact. They are saying that the government is forcefully evicting them, but I want to tell them that if the government wanted to demolish or forcefully evict them it would have done much earlier,” he said about the homes on the Musi river.
On the apprehensions on whether all the affected households will be given a 2BHK/flat for relocating, he said that though 10,200 structures were identified for being cleared from the banks of the Musi River, the Telangana government has sanctioned 15,000 2bhk houses for alienating their houses for the project.
“Even if some families are missed, they will also be included in the beneficiaries list and provided 2bhk houses,” he assured.
“There will be sad emotions during shifting the houses after living there for so long. We are going from house to house without hurting anyone and trying to instill confidence among those families that they will not be hurt,” Dana Kishore said. He assured that the shifting, demolitions and the project execution will all happen in a transparent manner, and reasserting that nobody will be forcefully evicted.
He said that he had a clear direction from chief minister Revanth Reddy and the ministers concerned, to see that people weren’t subjected to distress while being shifted to 2bhk houses. Dana Kishore added that the chief minister has given them directions to complete the Musi rejuvenation, and to ensure that clear water flowed in the Musi by 2026, for which we are spending Rs 3,800 crore.
AV Ranganath explains Bucchamma’s suicide
Commenting about the suicide of Bucchamma in Kukatpally on Friday, Hyderabad Disaster Response Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRA) commissioner AV Ranganath said that he felt very sad coming to know about an elderly woman like her committing suicide due to fearing HYDRA demolishing her property.
“What happened there was that Bucchamma had three daughters, and she had given two G+1 houses and an open plot to her daughters in dowry. All these structures fall under the buffer-zone, but we were not going to touch those structures. But some locals instilled fear in her minds by showing HYDRA as a monster. HYDRA was not constituted with that objective. HYDRA is not a monster, it is a Bharosa,” Ranganath assured.
Also pointing out how villas have been demolished in Ameenpur and a Panchayat and a revenue inspector have been suspended there, Ranganath said that when nobody is having fear of grabbing and encroaching government lands and lake beds, such action becomes necessary.
“All these encroachments may have happened in the past, but if we don’t take action now, today they are calling them HYDRA victims, but if in the future there are floods in Hyderabad, one crore people will become the victims,” Ranganath cautioned.
He reiterated that only unauthorised structures were being demolished by HYDRA, and that those with valid GHMC and HMDA permissions weren’t being touched. To a question on Janwada farmhouse and what action was HYDRA going to take on it, he replied saying the farmhouse fell under the purview of GO 111, and it didn’t come under the aegis of HYDRA.
