HYDERABAD: Describing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s announcement to repeal GO 111 as not about ending the GO, but ending the lakes in the city, social activist and leader of National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM) Medha Patkar on Friday said that the State government was catering to ‘market forces.’
Addressing the media after visiting the community hall at Afzalnagar close to the demolished slum where 51 families wait for succour, Patkar stressed the need for the State government to have a debate on the issue with Lakes Protection Committee.
She opined that Rao’s claim about supplying drinking water through other irrigation projects like Kaleswaran project was not a valid reason for repealing GO 111.
Noting that the groundwater table could only be rejuvenated through a natural cycle where lakes play a pivotal role, Patkar felt that repealing GO 111 would lead to the destruction of the environment in Hyderabad.
Terming the demolition of Teegalaguda basthi in Moosarambagh last month as an ‘inhuman act and an atrocity against women just months before the onset of monsoons,’ Patkar criticised the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for not rehabilitating and resettling the victims.
She demanded the State government follow a Supreme Court ruling under which displaced slum-dwellers have to be resettled through in-situ development of basthis by implementing eight essential schemes for their welfare.
Observing that the alternative housing allotted to around 145 families from the basthi didn’t have water, electricity or an Anganwadi centre, Patkar said that those who could pay bribes could get 2BHK units allotted to them while those who couldn’t are forced to live on the roads. The social activist said that there were many families living in the basthi since 20-40 years, and all of them deserved proper housing with all facilities.