HYDERABAD: Taking a serious view of encroachment of natural lakes, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court has recently issued notices to the State government and other authorities concerned to respond to a PIL complaining that the authorities had failed to protect two important natural lakes viz. Sambi Cheruvu and Bandanlevu Cheruvu in Ameenpur village of Patancheru from encroachments by private real estate builders.
The bench of Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice G Shyam Prasad was dealing with a PIL by T Chandrasekhar Reddy, resident of Sangareddy district, seeking direction to the respondent authorities to take steps for protecting the above two lakes.
Petitioner’s counsel alleged the officials concerned were hand in glove with the private builders resulting in that the latter were illegally resorting to fill up the above two lakes with sand and to make layouts for commencing constructions. Already a cluster of buildings have mushroomed up on the illegally laid layouts, he noted.
The bench issued notices to the principal secretary to revenue, HMDA commissioner, Sangareddy district collector and district panchayat officer for filing counter affidavits.