Telangana HC pulls up state government over twin reservoirs

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court  on Wednesday pulled up the state government, asking what it was doing when the high-power committee (HPC),  constituted in 2016 to look into issues related to GO 111 vis-à-vis the twin reservoirs Himayat Sagar and Osama Sagar, is sitting silent without submitting the reports.

The issues included the deletion of some areas from its limits, which does not  fall within the 10 km area close to the catchment area of the two reservoirs.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice  Vijaysen Reddy  inquired about the existence of the high-power committee and its accomplishments so far.

The bench was dealing with a petition filed by one of the private parties, who sought a court direction to the authorities to allow him construct buildings on his land at Vatti Nagulapally village.  

The bench posed a volley of questions  to the government  as it had shown no sense of responsibility to follow up on the issue and redress the grievances of  the citizens. "These people are suffering for decades because their lands were brought into the limits of GO 111  even as they do not come under catchment area," the bench noted.

The bench added: "Without their fault, the aggrieved persons are suffering, but the government simply constituted the HPC and left things at that, the bench observed in a tone of indictment.

When state counsel submitted that the HPC had convened its meetings 28 times so far, Chief Justice  Hima Kohli  asked counsel to produce the minutes and resolutions of those meetings. However, state counsel  was unclear about it all and sought  time to produce the details.

CJ Kohli was irritated over the attitude of the government on this issue and observed that  the bench will direct abrogation of the  HPC as it was “doing nothing.”

Directing government counsel to come with a report on the  present status of HPC,  the court adjourned the case to  August 16. The bench also made it clear that, if the government does not come forward to deal with the grievances, it will allow the victims to go further ahead in the matter.

The petitioner said he was denied permission for the construction works, by saying a particular survey number of  this  land came under the GO 111 limits. But, the petitioner argued that  his land was  just opposite to the US Consulate and on the side of the financial district. All the lands surrounding his land were allowed to raise the buildings, he said, and asked why he is not allowed to do so.

Ecological concerns are at the root of the issue, from which stemmed the GO 111. Conservation is the way forward. A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) titled Climate Change 2021, released this week, has warned that heatwave and humid heat stress will be intense in the coming years. Glacial retreat in the Hindu Kush Himalayas, the rise in sea levels due to global warming and intense tropical cyclones resulting in flooding, erratic monsoon and intense heat stress are likely to impact India in adverse ways.  

It also said the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal have warmed faster than the global average. On high mountains in the region, snow cover has reduced in the 21st Century, it said, adding that this trend will continue.