Hyderabad: After the state government took the decision to make it mandatory for real estate developers and builders to protect, develop and rejuvenate water bodies and increase green cover, the activists from environmental and civil society representatives stand against the decision.
According to the activist, the government has opened doors for developers to turn the water bodies into their private properties and stop people from coming to the lake.
“The decision is sinister. It is nothing but legally handing the lakes to developers to further encroach the water bodies and develop more ventures,” said an activist to The New Indian Express.
The decision also goes against the basic structure of the constitution. There are about 3,200 lakes in the Metropolitan Region and a majority of them have shrunk dramatically due to ventures and layouts coming up along buffer zone and FTL.
An environmental activist, Prof, K Purshotham Reddy described the orders as a sinister move of the government to hand over natural resources to corporates and said that it will definitely be a major issue.
Further, he said, “We will make it an election issue. How can the government hand over water bodies to corporates?” he added.
A Social activist and co-convener of NGO- Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL), Lubna Sarwath said “Lakes are critical public resources, their safety is the government’s responsibility. As citizens, we shall not allow this to happen.”
