Hyderabad, Aug 10: Tension prevailed in Shastripuram area here as Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRA) today demolished illegal structures on heritage lake Bam Rukn-Ud-Dowla while police arrested AIMIM MLA M.A. Mubeen for obstructing the demolition.
HYDRA personnel with the police help took up the demolition of the illegal structures in the Full Tank Level (FTL) of the 18th century lake, from which Asaf Jahi rulers used to drink water.
Some VIPs allegedly encroached the land and constructed houses and other structures.
HYDRA, which was recently constituted by the Telangana government, took up the demolition on the direction of the Commissioner A.V. Ranganath.
The demolition triggered tension in the Kings Colony and Shastripuram areas of Rajendranagar mandal. AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s house is also located in Shastripuram.
The police cordoned off the area as the teams of HYDRA supported by the heavy earthmoving equipment demolished some structures.
No outsider was allowed into the colony by the police and local people were barred from going near the lake.
On receipt of information, AIMIM MLA from Bahadurpura constituency M.A. Mubeen and some corporators reached there and tried to stop demolition. Police arrested them and whisked them away.
The encroachment and filling of the heritage lake had been long condoned by civic and revenue authorities. This was despite objections from the Irrigation officials and concerned citizens.
The unauthorised houses were constructed in the FTL of the centuries-old lake Rukn-ud-Dawla. Several activists have been trying to save the lake from encroachers and land grabbers.
An individual had moved the High Court claiming that six acres of land was his own. The High Court order had directed the government authorities not to interfere with the property in any manner, without following due process of law.
Dr Lubna Sarwath, a well-known lake-protection activist, has been vocal in demanding the authorities to take steps to protect the heritage lake. She had approached the National Green Tribunal in 2018, seeking directions to save the water body.
On the orders by the NGT principal bench, a survey was undertaken in 2019.
She alleged that the area of the lake was manipulated by repeatedly shifting the boundaries since 2014. The area of the tank up to FTL was initially shown as 17.491 acres, which was later changed to 10.691 acres.
Lubna Sarwath had a conspiracy at multiple levels to hand over the historic lake to land sharks.
Work on the conservation of the lake could not be taken up even though an in-situ treatment plan for the lake’s contaminated water was prepared by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and work orders were issued.
The Irrigation Department submitted a report regarding the protection and remediation of the lake to the NGT. It has cited dwellings located inside FTL of the lake as one of the reasons as to why the lake couldn’t be completely fenced and a remediation plan for improving the quality of the lake’s water proposed by NEERI couldn’t be implemented.
MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan has also alleged conspiracies to grab the land of the heritage lake.
According to him, the lake was built on 104 acres of land during 1770 by Nawab Rukn-Ud-Dowla, the then Prime Minister of IIIrd Nizam Sikander Jah.
He alleged the lake was encroached systematically during the rule of Bharat Rashtra Samithi. He had demanded the Congress government to save the lake.
