HYDERABAD: The Telangana Cabinet on Tuesday accorded approval to abolish GO 111 which gives protection to the twin drinking water reservoir cum dams - Himayathsagar and Osmansagar. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced this in a press meet on Tuesday.
Rao also announced that a committee headed by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and members of the TS Pollution Control Board would be constituted and tasked to ensure pollution doesn’t impact the drinking water reservoirs and rivers Musi and Esa.“Green Zones will be declared and master plans will be implemented,” the Chief Minister said.
With this one announcement, the protection awarded to the catchment areas of the two reservoirs 26 years ago has now been lifted. GO 111 was first issued on March 8, 1996, with intention of conserving the twin reservoirs from pollution. Eventually in 2000, after an oil company tried to set up a unit near the Osmansagar reservoir dam, activists approached the Supreme Court which also upheld the GO.
The GO has since then on paper banned certain kinds of intensive construction activities within a 10 km radius of the reservoirs. Activists, however, note that over the years, encroachments have come up even within the lake with no action from the government.