TS Govt to act tough against N Convention

Hyderabad : The State government has decided to crack the whip against unauthorized structures owned by prominent people, especially in and around Hyderabad.

In tune with the government's thinking on the matter, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is gearing up to act tough against the bigwigs who had encroached upon public lands and deprived the State government of its legitimate revenues in the form of property tax and building permission fee to the tune of hundreds of crores.

Controversial N-Convention Center owned by popular film actor Akkineni Nagarjuna is likely to be the first target of the Corporation's drive as the entire building complex of the convention center had been constructed on Gurukul (Ghatkesar) trust lands in Madhapur.

The officials of the Corporation, who have already served a notice on the management of the convention Center, are now planning to undertake a scientific survey to prove that the convention Center had encroached upon the Full Tank Level (FTL) of the Tammidikunta lake to construct its complex. The proposed survey was necessitated following AP High Court's directive.

Earlier, the officials from revenue and irrigation department conducted a survey on July 28 this year and found that it had encroached upon 1.12 acres FTL of the Tammidikunta Lake out of 29.24 acres and two acres of the buffer zone.

The officials also reported that the remaining area of the lake was occupied by heaps of boulders and a ring bund. The authorities have marked the FTL of the lake, besides fixing the buffer zone during the survey. Speaking to Metro India, GHMC chief city planner S Devender Reddy said that they had asked revenue and irrigation department authorities to undertake the survey yet another time.

'The High Court has asked us to serve notice and conduct the survey once again as the survey conducted earlier was done without issuing mandatory notice to the management of the N-Convention Center.

We have asked the revenue and irrigation department officials to conduct the survey as early as possible so that we can initiate action against the convention center,' he said. Reddy made it clear that the entire premises of the N-Convention Center was an unauthorized construction as it was built on the Gurukul trust lands.

He also said that they would demolish the entire structure based on the findings of the revenue and irrigation department officials. 'As per existing laws, all unauthorized structures have to be demolished. There is no scope for imposition of any penalty as of now. We will do the same thing with N-Convention Center,' the official said.