HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) did not spend any amount on the conservation or protection of lakes, revealed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on the General and Social Sector, for the year ended March 2018.
The HMDA had submitted an action plan for the conservation and beautification of 258 lakes to the State government. As neither the approval nor the release of funds was received from the government, the action plan could not be implemented, the CAG report revealed. The HMDA, however, spent Rs 12.62 crore during the last five years - from 2013 to 2018 - on the survey of lakes, which also remains incomplete.
Only five per cent (165) of the total lakes in Hyderabad were notified as of June 2018, even after three years of the entrustment of work, the CAG report stated, and added that the HMDA’s list of 3,132 lakes was also not comprehensive as it excluded 146 lakes.
Delays in the reconciliation of the survey results with the records of the irrigation and revenue departments led to the delays in final notification, the CAG report revealed.
According to the CAG report, continuous encroachments in the catchment, buffer areas, and the FTL of lakes, coupled with the inaction of the Revenue Department to remove encroachments resulted in the deterioration of lakes’ health and threatened their existence.
The State government had accorded administrative sanction of Rs 120 crore to the HMDA for the development and beautification of 20 lakes. For 11 of the 20 lakes, there were no pre-feasibility reports. The selection of the lakes for development was not based on a detailed study. Incidentally, only two of these 20 lakes were finally notified.
'Hussainsagar project was unsustainable'
The Hussainsagar Lake Catchment Area Improvement Project (HCIP) was taken up in February 2006 at a cost of Rs 370 crore to improve the water quality in the lake. The project was shut in July 2016 after completing only four out of nine major components and spending Rs 296.43 crore.
Pollution levels that were brought under control after the closure of JICA project had increased thereafter due to the discharge of sewage into the lake. Thus, failure to factor future changes rendered the project unsustainable, CAG report mentioned.