HYDERABAD: The People’s Scientific Committee, chaired by Dr K Baburao, released a report on the scrapping of GO 111 on Sunday. The report, co-authored by scientists Sagar Dhara and Dr B Ramalingeswara Rao urged the government to bring the order back with additional features.
GO 111, issued in 1996, prohibited industries and construction works from coming up in the catchment areas of the Osmansagar and Himayatsagar lakes up to a radius of 10 km. However, in 2022, the State government did away with the order.
Speaking on the occasion, Sagar Dhara stressed three major measures proposed by the report. The Committee asked the government to take steps to ensure that all existing and future activities in the area comply with the Supreme Court order that upheld GO 111. A possible step is to establish a monitoring committee to govern the activities in the area and to take action against any violations of the Supreme Court order.
Another suggestion is to use the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to create ‘green jobs’ - watershed management, land-shaping where necessary, restitution of degraded lands, reforestation, preventing air pollution and setting up solar energy parks.
The Committee also recommended that the legal identity of the lakes should be changed and they should be treated as “living beings”. Separate survey numbers that give lakes and reservoirs their own identity should be created.
A soft copy of the report will be made available in the public domain. They expressed optimism that the report will lead to public discourse. The report will be submitted to the government of Telangana, the High Court and the Supreme Court of India.