Hyderabad: Lake grabbed slice by slice

Hyderabad: Lakes are being encroa-ched in broad daylight as the GHMC and HMDA make empty promises to protect water bodies. At Chinna Maisamma Cheruvu in Moosapet on Monday, one could see truckloads of construction debris dumped along the banks, which the encroachers use to claim bits of the lake everyday.

Houses are constructed on the reclaimed land. A group of people in fact was seen leveling such a debris dump on Monday. Some of the houses have come up as close as five-10 meters from the bank and even a temple is being constructed. This is in gross violation of rules, which do not allow construction on the full tank level of a lake.

The lake falls under Allapur division of GHMC ruled by TRS corporator Sabeeha Begum, in Balanagar mandal under the RR collectorate. A borewell has been sunk next to the lake, which serves as a source of illegal water point for many tanker agencies.

Every day at least 300 tankers of 5,000-litre capacity are filled at the borewell, translating intto at least 1.5 lakh litres of groundwater. A nursery is being raised on another side of the lake. There’s also a concrete plant and another illegal borewell. But the authorities are blind to all this.

As per the HMDA, Chinna Maisamma Cheruvu’s original size is 39.69 hectares, or 98 acres, with a full tank level of 150 acres. Now the lake has shrunk to less than 50 per cent of its size.

An official from RR collectorate blamed the aggressiveness of those who encroached the lake and said that last year when GHMC tried to demolish illegal structures, officials and the police were attacked by locals. A former corporator blamed local leaders for backing encroachers and preventing the authorities from entering the  area.