Hyderabad floods: Full tank level dilemma helping guilty

Hyderabad: Thousands of buildings constructed within the full tank level (FTL) of water bodies, obstructing the natural flow of rainwater were marooned in the heavy rain. But no action has been taken yet against officials who had permitted the building of these structures on lake beds.

A lack of coordination between the GHMC, HMDA, panchayat, irrigation, revenue, discoms and Water Supply and Sewerage Board, among others, is one of the main reasons behind this menace.

Adding to this confusion are delighted town planning officials who are more than happy at this lack of coordination as it facilitates them to allow illegal constructions on the pretext of not having details of FTL of water bodies.

The standard reply from the officials — mainly the GHMC and HMDA — is that FTL boundaries of the lakes were not marked by the irrigation department; therefore permissions were being given to build on the lake bed.

“It was only after the TRS government came to power that a serious effort was made to mark FTL boundaries,” a senior GHMC official said. Civic bodies do not even have data on number of illegal constructions on lake beds, except that there are 28,533 illegal structures dot the nalas.

Environmentalist and activist with the Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL) campaign Lubna Sarwath demanded that officials responsible for allowing illegal constructions and ignoring court orders to demolish them be arrested.

“Despite a High Court order, Ramky’s encroachments were not removed and the villas are now inundated. SOUL’s activists, along with locals, are trying to pump out water from cellars as the Maddela kunta has been breached as well as the upstream Rajiv Gandhinagar lake,” Ms Sarwath said.