Illegal layouts pose threat to water bodies

Hyderabad: The collusion of some officials from Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) with Irrigation Department has resulted in sprouting of unauthorised layouts nearby water bodies, buffer zones and on lake beds falling under FTL (full tank level).

Strangely, permissions to these layouts were given by HMDA under Land Regularisation Scheme (LRS) based on No Objection Certificates (NOCs) issued by the Irrigation Department.

With this clandestine approach, many of the lakes in HMDA jurisdiction are under threat. According to the rule book, the Irrigation Department has to demarcate boundaries for all lakes before issuing a No Objection Certificate.

However, greedy officials have not been showing any concern to the encroachment of lakes with the tacit support of HMDA officials, who are taking shelter under the Irrigation Department's NOC.

According to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation building norms, any kind of construction on FTL is illegal.

However, several private agencies have received No Objection Certificates from the Irrigation Department for regularising their layout permissions for more than a decade in Hyderabad and parts of Ranga Reddy districts.

Sources said that Albinur Cheruvu in Serilingampally, which used to be 100 acre, has been reduced to 50 acre. Similarly, the Satyanarayana Cheruvu in Ghatkesar has shrunk from 160 acre to 30acre; the Mella Cheruvu in Tellapur has shrunk to 25 acre from 50 acre.

Other lakes like Konda Madugu Cheruvu in Bibinagar, Muskin Cheruvu and Vennela Cheruvu in Jeedimetla have been in the news for their rapid-shrinking lake area.

According to officials at HMDA, the FTL limits which should be 100 meters for a river, 30 m for lake and 9 m for canals, are not being followed properly by the field staff of the Irrigation department.

Though, the irrigation authority has rights to identify the possible FTL demarcation surrounding the lakes, the job is not being done properly. Officials of HMDA claim that the Irrigation department has been issuing NOCs stating that the proposed layout does not fall under the FTL boundary and there is no threat of encroachment.

The officials said that the Irrigation department officials show that the proposed layout falls under certain survey numbers that are away from the water bodies and they do not pose any threat.

The HMDA has been assisting the Irrigation department in carrying out survey on lakes for demarcation of FTL boundaries and buffer zones of 454 lakes inside the ORR and 800 lakes falling outside ORR for quite some time.

However, a delay on the part of HMDA to complete works identifying boundary limits at all the mentioned lakes has been resulting in continuous encroachments.

Responding to allegations, HMDA Executive Engineer J Krishna Rao said that the Lake Protection Committee has been assisting both the Irrigation and Revenue Departments in fixing boundaries for these water bodies.

'We don't have any alternative except to process an application once the applicant gets NOC from the irrigation department.' Presently, there are more than 1,672 other water bodies under HMDA's jurisdiction that are vulnerable to encroachments and need immediate attention regarding demarcation of FTL boundaries and buffer zones.