HYDERABAD: Before taking the decision to repeal GO 111, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao should have sought public opinion, said Dr Lubna Sarwath of the Long Live Lakes campaign during its launch on Sunday.
Speaking on the occasion, Lubna emphasised that the Chief Minister can’t abrogate the order by saying that Osmansagar and Himayatsagar water reservoirs are no longer of utility to the city.
Questioning the competency of the Committee that was appointed in 2016 by the State government, mostly comprising bureaucrats, to study the two water reservoirs should be scrapped and a new committee should be constituted with members consisting of hydrologists, geologists and experts from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) and others, Lubna said.
It was foolishness on the part of the State government to scrap the GO, she mentioned. Nexus between politicians, real estate developers
There is a nexus between the political leaders and real estate developers to see that the order is scrapped to reap benefits through the selling of lands and taking up large-scale construction activity to make it a concrete jungle, said Lubna.
The GO was issued in 1996 mainly to prohibit construction activities like industries, major hotels, residential colonies and other establishments that generate pollution within the 10-kilometer-radius of the reservoirs.
The two reservoirs are functioning for control of floods, providing drinking water to the city and also serving for irrigation purposes, recharging the groundwater table. She said the twin balancing water reservoirs are holding floodwaters, recharging ground acquifier, maintaining cool temperatures and nurturing the Chilkur and Mrugavani forests.
Thousands of illegal constructions have come within the 10-km-radius of the reservoirs and the government has completely failed to take any action to remove them till date, said Dr Lubna, adding that the two reservoirs protected the residents by storing the excess water when the city faced floods.
Retired senior scientist K Babu Rao said if construction activities are allowed, it will lead to havoc. For maintaining ecological balance, the two reservoirs need to be protected at all costs, he added.