Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Wednesday sought to know from the state govt, revenue, municipal and irrigation officials and the lake protection committee the progress they made in determining the full tank level of the 3,532 lakes within Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority area.
A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice J Sreenivas Rao gave authorities time till Dec 30 to furnish a status report. The bench, it can be recalled, took up the cause of these 3,532 lakes as a separate PIL two weeks ago and directed the state to keep it informed of the progress in determining the FTLs and brief the court about the steps taken for protecting these lakes.
When the matter came up for hearing, special govt pleader Pottigari Sridhar Reddy informed the court that they have issued preliminary notifications determining FTL of 2,793 lakes. Final notifications were issued in respect of 530 lakes, he explained.
He sought three months’ time to issue final notifications in respect of all the remaining lakes. The bench, however, said that it would continue to monitor the status of the work on a regular basis. “Tell us the progress by Dec 30. We will grant you time periodically after reviewing the progress at regular intervals,” the bench said.
The bench had earlier summoned HMDA commissioner and directed him to complete the task in a time-bound manner. The bench also sent two advocates as court commissioners to assess the extent of encroachments in some of the prime lakes within Greater Hyderabad.
The issue gathered dust without any progress between 2016 and 2023. Coincidentally, the state govt has now come out with new plans to clean Musi river and also to protect all lakes by establishing HYDRAA.
