Hyderabad: Land mafia grabs water bodies

HYDERABAD: Land grabbers have now set their eyes on the tanks in the Bandlaguda and Balapur areas of the Old City.  The tanks are being filled and the reclaimed land is being sold off by the land mafia. To being with, a visit to the Gurram Cheruvu tank shows that the land grabbers are filling the tank by dumping boulders and loads of construction waste in the water body. A big portion of the tank is being encroached upon from the Royal Colony side and a few houses have already come up. While from the Barkas side too, a vast portion of the tank has been occupied and efforts are being made to sell off the encroached portion.

“During the early morning hours, truck loads of debris are dumped into the tank. The activity is going on unhindered for past few months and the local ‘pahelwans’ are involved in it,” points Sayeed Bin Ahmed, a local resident of Royal Colony. This tank is also getting polluted with two illegal slaughter houses operating in its vicinity, releasing animal waste into the water body every day. The inflow of animal waste into the tank is resulting in foul smell emanating from the place. A few kilometres away, the Suraram Cheruvu tank located in Bandlaguda, is also being encroached upon. Workers have started dumping construction waste into the lake.

“The encroached portion of the lake was sold off recently,” points out S.Q. Masood, a social activist. Mr Lubna Sarwath, of SOUL, says that with summer approaching, there is a likelihood of the encroachment of the lakes increasing. “Already several tanks including the Jalpally, Palleh Cheruvu and others in the south, have been encroached upon by land mafia. Despite complaints, the authorities do very little to protect them,” she points out.