Bulldozer Justice… HC presses pause on HYDRA actions around Durgam Cheruvu

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday issued an interim order halting Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRA) demolition around the Durgam Cheruvu lake. The petitions were filed by residents of Amar Society. Anumula Tirupati Reddy, brother of the Chief Minister, also resides in the society.

Last month, the authorities served a notice to Madhapur’s Amar Cooperative Society, including to Tirupati Reddy, to demolish his illegal residence in Amar Society, which falls under the Full Tank Level (FTL) of Durgam Cheruvu. The notice was issued under Section 23(1) of the WALTA Act. The notice mentioned that the properties, including the Tirupati Reddy property, came under the FTL of Durgam Cheruvu and gave a month of deadline to demolish it.

Responding to the notices, the residents of Amar society, including Tirupati Reddy, approached the High Court and challenged the State Government. The court heard the petitions filed by the residents that the FTL determination of Durgam Cheruvu was not done scientifically. As per records, Durgam Cheruvu FTL was only 65 acres, whereas the authorities said it was 160 acres. The advocates brought it to the attention of the court. The residents raised objections even to the preliminary notification issued in 2014.

After hearing the arguments, the High Court directed the Lake Protection Committee to take the objections into account and issue the final notification within six weeks from October 4.

When the issue came into light in the last week of August, Tirupati Reddy said that he had purchased the property in 2015 and was unaware that the land was classified with the FTL of Durgam Cheruvu at the time of purchase. The land is registered under the name of P Koteshwar Rao.

“If the government determines his building is on FTL land, he has no objection to any corrective action they may take as part of their broader initiative to address such encroachments,” he said. A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao, asked the State Government to inform the court of the procedure and the law to be followed or an executive order under which the FTL of the Durgam Cheruvu was fixed. Earlier, the court directed Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and officials to fix FTLs of all the lakes under HMDA

jurisdiction.