Kapra lake blocked, rain floods upstream

Hyderabad: Areas upstream of Kapra lake are becoming waterlogged because an inlet into the lake has been closed. According to residents of areas around the lake, like Yapral, Alwal, Kapra amongst other locations, the lake which was once spread over 100 acres has now been reduced to a mere 72.

Records indicate that the lake bed, once it dries up in the summer, can be used for agrarian practices. Most of the lake’s inlets have been blocked to which keep it perennially dry, making way for multiple bogus claimants.

According to sourcs, even builders are coming forward to claim that the lake land belongs to them.
“If the inlet was blocked, the civic body should have cleaned and re-watered the lake. Leaving it out for land grabbers to make away with parcels of land is not the way,” said Mr Nagraj Deva, a resident of R.K. Puram.

A few residents who have been monitoring the activities taking in the lake rue that a major inlet has been sealed when it was de-waterered. “The process was taken up before the rains, so that they could de-silt the lake. When the lake was drying up, several people came forward claiming the land to be theirs. It has also resulted in litigation in the courts," said Mr Pankaj Sethi, a resident of the area.

Elsewhere, residents of places abutting the freshly de-watered, RK Puram lake are facing a mosquito menace.

“When the officials had removed water from the lake, they had to dig a few pits in the lake bed which could contain the rainwater. Now, these have become a mosquito breeding ground and have made life miserable,” said N. Deva, a resident of Devi Nagar Colony, near RK Puram lake.