Hyderabad: Illegal construction thrive in Circle No 11

Rajendranagar: Dubbed as Circle No11 under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, Rajendranagar, has earned the moniker of 'most unsupervised area' in terms of implementing town planning rules as brazen level of illegal and unauthorised constructions have mushroomed and the non-stop saga squarely speaks about endless corruption at official level.

Deviations, deep excavations to construct cellars, construction of extra slabs, encroachment of roads, footpaths, water bodies and nalas are common scenes here in Rajendranagar. Even people, activists and GHMC town planning officials are well-acquainted with the situation here.

"In 2019, the government had passed an order to municipal commissioners of all Urban Local Bodies to take immediate action against illegal and unauthorised constructions as per the orders passed by the High Court and furnish the report of action taken. However, nothing has changed on the ground wherein brazen levels of illegal and unauthorised constructions in Rajendranagarhave been continuingfor the last two years, while the officials of town planning wing are fully aware of the issue," said Syed Shoukat Ali, community activist.

Town planning officers and staff, he further said, by and large appeared taking any action by their end or on filing of any complaint from any quarter against illegal constructions as they least come to office or simply avoid responding to calls relating to such illegal activities. Local ACP town planning doesn't give a hoot to the blatant level of violations going under her nose, he said.

Ironically, while several departments are facing shortage of labourers to carry out pre-monsoon repair and construction works in the area, the illegal constructionsare going unabated without such shortcoming of labour force despite lockdown.

The ACP Town Planning Wing, Rani,did not respond to calls and text messages on more than one occasion for comment on the issue.