Telangana govt revokes G.O 111

Hyderabad: In a major development, the State government has decided to revoke G.O. 111. The decision was taken during the State Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday. The G.O 111 was issued in 1996 to prevent extreme industrialisation and heavy construction activities in 83 villages and pollution of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar.

In the recently held Assembly sessions, CM KCR had stated that the government will soon revoke GO 111. Responding to the query, KCR said the G.O. is unessential at present.

"The GO had been issued to protect the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar, which at that point of time, catered to drinking water needs of people of the Greater Hyderabad region but as the government had overcome the drinking water problem, the GO has become redundant," the CM said.

"Around 1,32,600 acres of land is under GO 111 and as MLA Yadaiah said 83 villages and seven mandals are combined. Hyderabad will not face any water problems for another 100 years as the water is being drawn from Sunkishala and Mallanna Sagar to provide water supply to the city," K Chandrasekhar Rao said.

He also added that the villages and land would be affected if the GO was lifted at once. "Hence, the Municipal Administration Minister and officials have been entrusted with the task of resolving the issue in a phased manner. An expert committee is also looking into the issue," the Chief Minister said.

On the other hand, many environmentalists suggested that the scrapping G.O 111 will spell doom for Hyderabad. In this regard, environment activist Lubna Sarwath responded to KCR's announcement on the same and said KCR's decision to do away with the GO 111 that protected the Nizam-era's two major reservoirs, the Himayat Sagar and the Osman Sagar, can prove detrimental to the city, opined environment activist Lubna Sarwath. She further added that if GO 111 was scrapped, it might bring floods every October and September causing a massive risk to Hyderabad. "The Chief Minister should take the public opinion. He cannot repeal the GO by simply stating that the Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar have become redundant. It is an unscientific reason. The committee that was appointed to study the twin reservoirs also has to be dissolved and a new expert committee should be formed in its place," she added.

She further said that CM's impulsive decision could send two reservoirs into a death trap and put lakhs of acres of land at a massive risk of concrete urbanisation. Lubna told that if GO 111 was repealed by the government, then there would be no greenery at all and the entire area in the protected zone around two lakes would be mushroomed with high-rise concrete buildings.

She also pointed out that the Water Board had earlier taken up the 'Save Gandipet project' a report submitted by the District Collector highlighting the 20,000 encroachments inside the reservoir. A map was created that projected the illegal constructions in the catchment areas. "Repealing of GO 111 will lead to heavy water overflow after rains. The government cannot break the natural system of water coming from Ananthagiri hills to two lakes and the same water from Osman Sagar comes to Asif Nagar filter and from Himayat Sagar to Mir Alam Tank water filter," said Lubna. She demanded that the Telangana government should prepare a report on the number of illegal compound walls, farmhouses and resorts that have come upon and around the maximum water spread boundary at FTL of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar.