Hyderabad: BJP slams KTR for rolling out red-carpet to drug firms

Hyderabad: BJP State executive committee member Karuna Gopal has criticised the TRS government's apathy for not taking care of the health of lakes and other water bodies in the Hyderabad and the State.

Addressing the media here on Friday, she said that the negligence of the State government and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao is pushing the city of Hyderabad into an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as the health of the city lakes has been fast deteriorating.

"If this trend continues then the Hyderabad would not retain its tag of Bhagya Nagaram (City of Fortune). But, it will end-up as a Daurbhagya Nagaram (City of misfortune).

The BJP leader said that the State High Court and National Green Tribunal have been making serious observations against the GHMC and other authorities concerned during the hearings of the PILs on the sorry state of lakes and other water bodies, accumulation of toxic metals etc.

But, the minister was hard-selling the brand Hyderabad offering to extend all necessary arrangements for the establishment of pharma companies in the State.

This is despite, the very pharma companies have been already polluting the lakes releasing their effluents and creating great disease burden on the city.

She said that unless the immediate measure is taken the situation to restore the health of water bodies and lakes then the fate of Hyderabad and Telangana would soon be worse than the Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, she warned.

Karuna Gopal said a city's vitals are economy, environment and equity. If the environment is totally neglected, then the city will be pushed into ICU. She said that almost all the lakes of the city including the iconic Hussain Sagar are completely polluted.

The heavy metal accumulation of heavy metals like cadmium, mercury and lead, which will cause incurable diseases. Lack of STPs and ETPs, falling diluted oxygen, increasing the bacterial mutations due to discharges from the pharmaceutical industries are all posing a danger to the health and lives of people.

The BJP leader said that Rama Rao should act as a responsible minister and initiate necessary steps with an understanding of the sorry state of affairs of the city lakes than hard-selling in Davos assuring red carpet to the drug companies, she pointed out.