Politicians force GHMC demolition drive to a halt

​Hyderabad: Demolition drive on nalas under Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits has come to a grinding halt due to interference from local political leaders.

The unauthorised structures have been obstructing the free flow of rain water in the nalas which contribute to heavy water logging during rainy season.

Following the heavy flooding of certain areas in the city during last monsoon, the GHMC had conducted a survey of encroachments on nalas along with revenue department between October and January.

Besides manual survey, the corporation officials had used Drone cameras for aerial surveys and video-documenting the areas by utilising the GPS system. The Geographical Information System (GIS) wing of the GHMC was actively involved in the exercise. The officials identified

as many as 12,182 unauthorised constructions over 173 major nalas which were spread over 390 km. Highly placed sources in the corporation said that the nala demolition drive has come to grinding halt due to political interference of leaders from all parties.

Sources said that the citizens would not get relief from water logging points and inundation of low lying areas during this monsoon if the encroachments were not removed. In fact even the Chief Minister had asked the officials to see that encroachments were cleared, the source said.

When asked about it, Mayor Bonthu Rammohan said that the decision on nalas demolition drive would be finalised within two days. He said that corporation has already held a meeting with city MLAs and they had proposed to increase the depth of the nalas so that demolition of unauthorised structures can be minimised. However, he said, that the corporation has been considering all options and final decision would be taken in a couple of days.

However, a senior GHMC official on condition of anonymity told The Hans India said that survey had been taken up to safeguard the lives of the citizens and to ensure that inundation of low lying areas as a result of heavy rains does not recur. The GHMC he said would take further action based on the instructions from the government.

Most of the nala encroachments have been found in three circles including Circle 3, Circle 10 and Circle 11. North Zone recorded the highest number of unauthorised constructions. With 37 major storm water drains in the zone spread over 89.40 km length, 4030 unauthorised structures were identified.

The Central Zone with the presence of 39 storm water drains and length of 102.54 km was found to have 2809 unauthorised constructions. While the West Zone with 41 storm water drains had 2684 unauthorised constructions, the South Zone with 32 storm water drains recorded 1810 unauthorised constructions. In East Zone, there were 849 illegal structures over 44 km covering 24 storm water drains.