Landsharks at large; NGOs miffed

NGOs are miffed that the Kapra Lake is widely being encroached despite an ongoing litigation against alleged encroachers. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by the members of Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL) and activist Satish Kumar in the High Court.

Satish Kumar said, “The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is not in a position to remove illegal encroachments in Kapra Lake, as the encroachments were permitted by the erstwhile Kapra municipality. Some of the buildings that came up on the lake bed were even regularised under the Building Penalisation Scheme (BPS). The GHMC is now passing the buck onto the revenue department and the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for removal of encroachments and protection of the lake.”

Lubna Sarwath, Dr Jasveen Jairath and other members of the SOUL alleged that, “Gade Bala Reddy, a resident of Yapral and owner of Carnival Club, has developed an illegal tennis court and Maithri Enclave in the lake bed and is now constructing an indoor stadium. This is being done in spite of the High Court orders. Surprisingly no action is being initiated by the authorities against the land grabbers. Besides, no steps are being taken to protect the historical lake which is serving the needs of the local people. Our protracted correspondence and complaint lodged from time to time with the concerned authorities were all in vain.”

The GHMC could not complete the identification of the encroachments in the Kapra Lake and, hence, could not submit a detailed report before the due date, which was October 13. It is reported that the civic body has asked the court for 2 to 3 months of time to submit the report.